Question: So I am trying to write a java program that will match (example : `eat`) in the string 

```
asdasdjhaskldhlasdklsadeaadsasdkljhasdklhjt

```

So what would happen is

```
asdasdjhaskldhlasdklsad_**E**__**A**_adsasdkljhasdklhj_**T**_

```

So what i have got so far in regex is matching the first letter...

```
^([e]+) - E

```

But I so not know how to allow letters and spaces between the matches.

Answer: 
You could try something like this:

```
e.*?a.*?t

```

This will match the closest `e`, `a` and `t` from the input string (which you highlighted).

Or you might use a negated class which might be faster on larger strings:

```
e[^a]*a[^t]*t

```

`[^a]*` will match anything but `a` and `[^t]*` will match anything but `t`.
You could use a pattern like this:

```
e.*a.*t

```

This will match an `e`, followed by zero or more of any characters, followed by an `a`, followed by zero or more of any characters, followed by a `t`.