asked on

String Split() method and pipes

I'm lost for trying to explain this:

public class wtf
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
String str = "abcdef";
String[] ary = str.split("|");
System.out.println(ary.length);
for(int i = 0; i < ary.length; i++)
System.out.println(ary[i]);
}
/*The output of this program is:
7

a
b
c
d
e
f
*/
}

Basicly I have a Vector of pipe delimited strings that I need to turn into a Vector of String arrays (broken at the pipes).

Mick Barry

| is a logical or operator in a reqexp, you need to escape it to use as seperator

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Mick Barry

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

modsiw

ASKER

thanks

Mick Barry

no worries :)

bhatiashardeep

The split may not work if the excape is used for delimiters. Thus the split doesn't work generacally for any delimiter. On can try out this mthod.

public static String[] split(String inputString, String splitter)
{
List outputList = new ArrayList();
if(inputString == null || splitter == null){
String[] output = (String[])outputList.toArray();
return output;
}
//if the value doesn't end with the delimiter then added is as we need to get the last value
int idx = inputString.indexOf(splitter);
if(!inputString.trim().endsWith(splitter))
inputString = inputString+splitter;
while(idx != -1){
String value = inputString.substring(0, idx);
outputList.add(value);
int next = idx+splitter.length();
inputString = inputString.substring(next);
idx = inputString.indexOf(splitter);
}

Object[] objectArray = new String[outputList.size()];
outputList.toArray(objectArray);
String[] output = (String[]) objectArray;

return output;
}