Splitting a string by whitespaces

Question

String str = "00 01 02";
String[] strings = str.split(" ");

This works as expected. But if I want to add Tab to the list, it stops working, returning the whole string:

String[] strings = str.split(" \t");

So, as usual, I ask to translate from C# to Java...

the split method splits about a regular expression. To split at multiple delimiters you may want to use the StringTokenizer class object. But you will need to use a loop to create your desired string array. — Victor Mukherjee, Oct 01 '12 at 09:14

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 01 '12 at 08:55

4

String[] strings = str.split("\\s+");

answered Oct 01 '12 at 08:55

Rohit Jain

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 01 '12 at 08:55

2

You could try:

str.split("\\s+")

It will split on any space and will remove all extra space. To simply include tab, use this:

str.split("[ \\t]")

answered Oct 01 '12 at 08:55

Ivan Koblik

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Using `\t` rather than `\\t` should be fine. – Peter Lawrey Oct 01 '12 at 08:59
@PeterLawrey True, if `\t` is used then java compiler will substitute it with `U+0009` if `\\t` is used then regular expression engine will interpret is as `U+0009`. More info [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3762347/understanding-regex-in-java-split-t-vs-split-t-when-do-they-both-wor). – Ivan Koblik Oct 01 '12 at 09:44

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 01 '12 at 08:56

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String.split() takes a regular expression:

Splits this string around matches of the given regular expression.

answered Oct 01 '12 at 08:56

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 01 '12 at 09:00

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String s = "Hello this is Vivek";

String[] sArr = s.split("\\s+");

Voila its done..!!!!!

answered Oct 01 '12 at 09:00

Kumar Vivek Mitra

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 01 '12 at 09:15

First argument of the split method is a regular expression. That means, you have to fill it with the regular expression it suits you the best. If you read here: http://www.regular-expressions.info/reference.html you'll see there is a token that suits your requisites the best: \s . It matches whitespaces, tabs and linebreaks (I don't know if you want to cover linebreaks, but chances are you need).

The other question is: should the strings be split by exactly one whitespace/tab? What should happen when you have "00 11 2"? If this is something you want, you'll need to use the +, meaning you want to split by one or more whitespaces/tabs.

Hence, my proposed solution for you:

str.split("\\s+")

Splitting a string by whitespaces

5 Answers5