Converting a String with Breaks to an Arraylist

Question

If I have the following string:

String string = "My \n name \n is \n John \n Doe";

And I want to separate each word and add it to an arraylist:

ArrayList<String> sentence = new ArrayList<String>();

How would I do that?

Bare in mind that the line break may not be \n - it could be anything.

Thanks

[String.split](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/lang/String.html#split(java.lang.String)) — Luiggi Mendoza, May 04 '12 at 20:33
This question was actually better answered in the following thread: [SO post](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/454908/split-java-string-by-new-line) — Maximilian Schulz, Jan 24 '19 at 14:15

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited May 04 '12 at 22:47

12

String lines[] = String.split("\\n");

for(String line: lines) {
    sentence.add(line);
}

This should do it.

edited May 04 '12 at 22:47

Makoto

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answered May 04 '12 at 20:33

DarthVader

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Use `Arrays.asList()` – Roland Sep 03 '19 at 09:42

Bozho · Answer 2 · 2012-05-04T20:38:22.000

6

List<String> list = Arrays.asList(string.split("\\s+"));

you are splitting on "any number of whitepsace symbols", which includes space, new line, etc
the returned list is readonly. If you need a new, writable list, use the copy-constructor
new ArrayList(list)

edited May 04 '12 at 20:38

answered May 04 '12 at 20:33

Bozho

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I *think* the OP wants his string breaked according to lines, not white spaces. – amit May 04 '12 at 20:41
\s includes new lines. And I interpreted his last sentence as it can be any other whitespace. Though I might be wrong – Bozho May 04 '12 at 20:42
but it also includes white spaces, what will `"My name is \n amit"` yield? – amit May 04 '12 at 20:43
I just updated my comment. The thing is, he wants to separate "words". So I assumed he needs any whitespace. Let's see if my assumption is correct – Bozho May 04 '12 at 20:44
Well then - if this is indeed the case, the answer fits. – amit May 04 '12 at 20:52
I'd prefer to only split by line breaks because there might be more than one word before the next line break. – May 04 '12 at 21:03

amit · Answer 3 · 2012-05-04T20:41:35.127

1

You can use String.split("\\s*\n\\s*") to get a String[], and then use Arrays.asList(). It will get a List<String>, if you want an ArrayList you can use the constructor ArrayList(Collection)

String string = "My \n name \n is \n John \n Doe";
String[] arr = string.split("\\s*\n\\s*");
List<String> list = Arrays.asList(arr);

You can also use Character.LINE_SEPARATOR instead of \n.

edited May 04 '12 at 20:41

answered May 04 '12 at 20:32

amit

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 04 '12 at 20:43

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

public class Test
{
    public static void main( String[] args )
    {
        List < String > arrayList = Arrays.asList( "My \n name \n is \n John \n Doe".split( "\\n" ) );
        // Removes the 2 white spaces: .split( " \\n " )
    }
}

Converting a String with Breaks to an Arraylist

4 Answers4