How can I count the number of matches for a regex?

If you want to use Java 8 streams and are allergic to while loops, you could try this:

public static int countPattern(String references, Pattern referencePattern) {
    Matcher matcher = referencePattern.matcher(references);
    return Stream.iterate(0, i -> i + 1)
            .filter(i -> !matcher.find())
            .findFirst()
            .get();
}

Disclaimer: this only works for disjoint matches.

Example:

public static void main(String[] args) throws ParseException {
    Pattern referencePattern = Pattern.compile("PASSENGER:\\d+");
    System.out.println(countPattern("[ \"PASSENGER:1\", \"PASSENGER:2\", \"AIR:1\", \"AIR:2\", \"FOP:2\" ]", referencePattern));
    System.out.println(countPattern("[ \"AIR:1\", \"AIR:2\", \"FOP:2\" ]", referencePattern));
    System.out.println(countPattern("[ \"AIR:1\", \"AIR:2\", \"FOP:2\", \"PASSENGER:1\" ]", referencePattern));
    System.out.println(countPattern("[  ]", referencePattern));
}

This prints out:

2
0
1
0

This is a solution for disjoint matches with streams:

public static int countPattern(String references, Pattern referencePattern) {
    return StreamSupport.stream(Spliterators.spliteratorUnknownSize(
            new Iterator<Integer>() {
                Matcher matcher = referencePattern.matcher(references);
                int from = 0;

                @Override
                public boolean hasNext() {
                    return matcher.find(from);
                }

                @Override
                public Integer next() {
                    from = matcher.start() + 1;
                    return 1;
                }
            },
            Spliterator.IMMUTABLE), false).reduce(0, (a, c) -> a + c);
}

This should work for matches that might overlap:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String input = "aaaaaaaa";
    String regex = "aa";
    Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex);
    Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(input);
    int from = 0;
    int count = 0;
    while(matcher.find(from)) {
        count++;
        from = matcher.start() + 1;
    }
    System.out.println(count);
}

matcher.find() does not find all matches, only the next match.

Solution for Java 9+

long matches = matcher.results().count();

Solution for Java 8 and older

You'll have to do the following. (Starting from Java 9, there is a nicer solution)

int count = 0;
while (matcher.find())
    count++;

Btw, matcher.groupCount() is something completely different.

Complete example:

import java.util.regex.*;

class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String hello = "HelloxxxHelloxxxHello";
        Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("Hello");
        Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(hello);

        int count = 0;
        while (matcher.find())
            count++;

        System.out.println(count);    // prints 3
    }
}

Handling overlapping matches

When counting matches of aa in aaaa the above snippet will give you 2.

aaaa
aa
  aa

To get 3 matches, i.e. this behavior:

aaaa
aa
 aa
  aa

You have to search for a match at index <start of last match> + 1 as follows:

String hello = "aaaa";
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("aa");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(hello);

int count = 0;
int i = 0;
while (matcher.find(i)) {
    count++;
    i = matcher.start() + 1;
}

System.out.println(count);    // prints 3

From Java 9, you can use the stream provided by Matcher.results()

long matches = matcher.results().count();