Determines if a string (represented as a char[]) exactly matches a given pattern. If there is an exact match, a MatchResult instance representing the match is made accesible via {@link #getMatch()}. The pattern must be a Perl5Pattern instance, otherwise a ClassCastException will be thrown. You are not required to, and indeed should NOT try to (for performance reasons), catch a ClassCastException because it will never be thrown as long as you use a Perl5Pattern as the pattern parameter.
Note: matches() is not the same as sticking a ^ in front of your expression and a $ at the end of your expression in Perl5 and using the =~ operator, even though in many cases it will be equivalent. matches() literally looks for an exact match according to the rules of Perl5 expression matching. Therefore, if you have a pattern foo|foot and are matching the input foot it will not produce an exact match. But foot|foo will produce an exact match for either foot or foo. Remember, Perl5 regular expressions do not match the longest possible match. From the perlre manpage:
Alternatives are tried from left to right, so the first alternative found for which the entire expression matches, is the one that is chosen. This means that alternatives are not necessarily greedy. For example: when matching foo|foot against "barefoot", only the "foo" part will match, as that is the first alternative tried, and it successfully matches the target string.
@param input The char[] to test for an exact match.
@param pattern The Perl5Pattern to be matched.
@return True if input matches pattern, false otherwise.
@exception ClassCastException If a Pattern instance other than aPerl5Pattern is passed as the pattern parameter.