Splitting a string in Java

Question

Just pointing out--the amount of time this confusion took probably cost you more than you will save by using regular expressions (over just coding the damn thing) over your entire career unless you do a lot of shell scripting. — Bill K
– Bill K, Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 20:15
I never intended to use regular expressions..the damn API is using automatically.. what am I supposed to do then? — why should I tell you my name
– why should I tell you my name, Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 20:19
Unfortunately the String.split() method always uses regexes. There are more flexible APIs available, though. — ColinD
– ColinD, Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 20:34

kennytm · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-24 20:08:51Z

7

You're right. | is a special character for alternation. The regular expression | means "an empty string or an empty string". So it will split around all empty strings, resulting 1 element for each character in the string. Escaping it \| make it a normal character.

answered Sep 24, 2010 at 20:08

kennytm

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3 Comments

why should I tell you my name Over a year ago

Thanks for the reply.. is & is also a special character?

kennytm Over a year ago

@why: No it's not. See download-llnw.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/regex/…. You could use \Q...\E to make sure the ... won't be interpreted as special characters.

ColinD Over a year ago

@why should I tell you my name: regular-expressions.info/reference.html

ColinD · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-16 20:23:09Z

3

If you want to split a string without using a regex, I'd recommend the Splitter class from Guava. It can split on fixed strings, regexes and more.

Iterable<String> split = Splitter.on('|').split("1|2|3|4");

edited Apr 16, 2011 at 20:23

answered Sep 24, 2010 at 20:33

ColinD

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Comments

Esko · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-24 20:09:23Z

1

| is OR in Java regular expression syntax, basically splitting 1|2|3|4 with | is equal to telling String#split() to "split this string between empty OR empty) which means it splits after every character you have in the original string.

answered Sep 24, 2010 at 20:09

Esko

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