What is the regular expression ‘.* ‘match?Any stringAny non-empty stringAny string that contains at least one dotAny string that starts with a dot

Understanding the Regular Expression

The regular expression .* is a common pattern used in many programming and scripting languages. Let's break down what it means:

1. . (Dot): This matches any single character (except for newline characters in some implementations).
2. * (Asterisk): This quantifier means "zero or more" of the preceding element, which in this case is ..

What Does .* Match?

Given the components of the regular expression, .* will match:

• Any string including an empty string: Since * allows for "zero or more" characters, an empty string is included.
• Any non-empty string: Any string of characters will also be matched, as there can be zero or more occurrences of the character, including all characters in the string.

Specific Options Analysis

Now, let's analyze the provided options in the context of the regular expression:

1. Any string: This is correct because .* will match any sequence of characters, including an empty string.
2. Any non-empty string: This is also correct as any string greater than one character will be matched.
3. Any string that contains at least one dot: This is incorrect. The expression .* will match strings that do not contain a dot.
4. Any string that starts with a dot: This is incorrect as well. The expression will match any string regardless of whether it starts with a dot or not.

Summary of Findings

• The regular expression .* matches any string, including empty strings, because it can match zero or more characters.

Final Answer

The correct answer is: Any string.