Java - String.split will not separate by semicolon

Question

My code worked perfectly before when separating by comma, and now it won't work for semicolon!

By comma:

public void loadXXXData() {
    InputStream is = getResources().openRawResource(R.raw.xxxdata);

    try
    {

        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is));

        try { 
            String line; 
            String[] RowData;
            RowData = new String[XXXVARNUM];
            for(int i=0;i<NUMBEROFXXX;i++){
                //Read the line.
                line = reader.readLine();
                //Cut the line up.
                RowData = line.split(",",XXXVARNUM);
                for(int j=0;j<XXXVARNUM;j++){
                    //Distribute the line into a 2D array.
                    XXX[i][j] = RowData[j];
                }
            }
            //Populate forms
            setCurrentXXX(XXX);
        } 
        catch (IOException ex) { 
            Log.v("XXXdex", "I/O Exception: Could not read from the I/O stream.");
        }
        finally { 

            try { 
                //Close the stream
                is.close(); 
            } 
            catch (IOException e) {
                Log.v("XXXdex", "I/O Exception: Could not close the I/O stream.");
            }
            finally {

            }
        } 

    }
    finally {

    }
}

By semicolon:

public void loadItemData() {
    InputStream is = getResources().openRawResource(R.raw.items);

    try
    {

        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is));

        try { 
            String line; 
            String[] RowData;
            RowData = new String[ITEMVARNUM];
            for(int i=0;i<NUMBEROFITEMS;i++){
                //Read the line.
                line = reader.readLine();
                //Cut the line up.
                RowData = line.split(";",ITEMVARNUM);
                for(int j=0;j<ITEMVARNUM;j++){
                    //Distribute the line into a 2D array.
                    ITEM[i][j] = RowData[j];
                }
            }
            //Populate forms
            setCurrentItem(item);
        } 
        catch (IOException ex) { 
            Log.v("XXXdex", "I/O Exception: Could not read from the I/O stream.");
        }
        finally { 

            try { 
                //Close the stream
                is.close(); 
            } 
            catch (IOException e) {
                Log.v("XXXdex", "I/O Exception: Could not close the I/O stream.");
            }
            finally {

            }
        } 

    }
    finally {

    }
}

A sample from the xxxData:

 1,dinosaur,Grass,Poison,45,49,49,65,65,45,Supergrow,,DrPhyll,64,0,0,0,1,0,0,45,0.7 m,6.9 kg,Seed

...Loads perfectly.

A sample from the itemData:

 Antidote;A spray-type medicine. It lifts the effect of poison from one XXX.;Route 3, Pinwheel Forest, Pinwheel Forest, Pinwheel Forest (With Dowsing Machine), Icirrus City Shop Route 9, Accumula Town, Striaton City, Nacrene City, Castelia City, Nimbasa City, Driftveil City, Mistralton City, Icirrus City, Opelucid City, XXX League, Lacunosa Town, Undella Town, Black City, White Forest

...Will not split correctly. What is up with that? I've scoured the forums looking for regex expressions that represent ";", but nothing will work. I keep getting an arrayIndexOutOfBounds exception because String.split isn't separating my string into the correct number of strings.

Try with a simpler code until you understand where is the problem. — Javier, Feb 19 '13 at 09:38
You've provided *far* more code than you need to in order to just show a problem with `split`. Please show a short but *complete* program demonstrating the problem - you shouldn't need to do *any* IO for that. — Jon Skeet, Feb 19 '13 at 09:39
make sure that `ITEMVARNUM` value is equal to no. of splits you wanna do in the line, based on the `regex`. — Rahul, Feb 19 '13 at 09:43
`System.out.println(Arrays.toString("a;b".split(";")));` works for me..no problem to split using semicolon. — Shivam, Feb 19 '13 at 09:48
ITEMVARNUM is the correct value. I've experimented with changing it. The function String.split is not splitting my lines up properly, hence the incorrect number of ITEMVARNUM. In other words, my program expects (ITEMVARNUM) splits from one line, but I'm getting X. Why, with a single character changed does this code act differently? I literally changed one character... "," to ";". — MrMysterious2502, Feb 19 '13 at 09:48

aeliusd · Answer 1 · 2013-02-19T14:25:07.380

Your problem is probably that you're looping over the array with a constant as upper bound:

RowData = line.split(";",ITEMVARNUM);
            for(int j=0;j<ITEMVARNUM;j++){
                //Distribute the line into a 2D array.
                ITEM[i][j] = RowData[j];
            }

try using

for(int j=0;j<RowData.length;j++){

instead.

But to answer your question, yes you can split on semicolon, as some of the comments have suggested, try it out and see that it works.

Edit: and also, I think you've misunderstood what the second paramater to the split method does. It's just an upper limit, it won't make an array with as many empty positions as you specify, it will just limit the resulting array to not be greater than that.

Edit2: This line is totally redundant and should be removed, it just clogs up the code and confuses.

RowData = new String[ITEMVARNUM];

Edit3: Ok, the basic issue that i see is that you're using some unknown variables as the bounds. It may just work if you correctly keep track of the indata and change these variables correspondingly. But a better way to do it to operatte on the actual indata instead. Have not tried this code but it should work (with maybe some minor tweaks)

        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is));

        try { 
            String line=""; 
            String[] RowData;
            List<String[]> itemList = new ArrayList<String[]>();

            while(line!=null){
                //Read the line.
                line = reader.readLine();
                //Cut the line up.
                RowData = line.split(";");
                itemList.add(RowData);
            }
            String[][] item = new String[itemList.size()][];
            for(int i=0; i<itemList.size(); i++){
                item[i] = itemList.get(i);
            }
            //Populate forms
            setCurrentItem(item);

Give it a swirl and see if it works.

Cool. Doesn't answer my original question, but you've taught me a bit. :) — MrMysterious2502, Feb 19 '13 at 10:01
+1: but now you have to control that j in ITEM[i][j] is in range too. — qPCR4vir, Feb 19 '13 at 12:29

gaborsch · Answer 2 · 2013-02-19T14:47:30.310

1

Maybe there are some lines that contain fewer columns than expected. Try catching the exception, and log extra data, such as the content of the line, the parts you have, etc.

You can also try debugging, setting an Exception break point in Eclipse.

Your test data are faulty. Try this:

Antidote;A spray-type medicine. It lifts the effect of poison from one XXX.;Route 3; Pinwheel Forest; Pinwheel Forest; Pinwheel Forest (With Dowsing Machine); Icirrus City Shop Route 9; Accumula Town; Striaton City; Nacrene City; Castelia City; Nimbasa City; Driftveil City; Mistralton City; Icirrus City; Opelucid City; XXX League; Lacunosa Town; Undella Town; Black City; White Forest

edited Feb 19 '13 at 14:47

answered Feb 19 '13 at 09:49

gaborsch

15,408
6
37
48

Those commas are supposed to be there. That is one field. Thank you for your efforts though. – MrMysterious2502 Feb 19 '13 at 09:55
Are you sure that you don't have any leading row which has less colums than required? Try logging the row numbers, or to catch the exception and put extra logging (e.g. log the faulty row, the fragments you get). Try debugging, set an Exception break point. – gaborsch Feb 19 '13 at 10:23
Any improvement in this topic? – gaborsch Feb 19 '13 at 14:44

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

0

Try this simple spliting method, here I am spliting with a comma and space.

temp=”10054, 10055, 10056, 10035, 10052, 10036, 10037, 10038″;
String[] url = temp.split(",\\s+");

this is the results you get
url = [ 10054, 10055, 10056, 10035, 10052, 10036, 10037, 10038]

Hope you understood

for more description see this blog Amalan's Blog

I also found this in another Question may be this will help you A similar problem

edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

Community

1
1

answered Feb 19 '13 at 09:46

Amalan Dhananjayan

2,277
1
34
47

I understand how to split strings. When I do the exact same code, but with a semicolon in place of the comma+space, it doesn't split correctly. – MrMysterious2502 Feb 19 '13 at 10:04
Did you try this --> RowData = line.split(","); – Amalan Dhananjayan Feb 19 '13 at 10:31
I'm splitting by semicolon, not comma. I tried that exact code, but with a semicolon instead of the comma. – MrMysterious2502 Feb 19 '13 at 10:43
try this then --> line.split(";", -1); – Amalan Dhananjayan Feb 19 '13 at 11:13

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 19 '13 at 10:06

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String str = "Antidote;A spray-type medicine. It lifts the effect of poison from one XXX.;Route 3, Pinwheel Forest, Pinwheel Forest, Pinwheel Forest (With Dowsing Machine), Icirrus City Shop Route 9, Accumula Town, Striaton City, Nacrene City, Castelia City, Nimbasa City, Driftveil City, Mistralton City, Icirrus City, Opelucid City, XXX League, Lacunosa Town, Undella Town, Black City, White Forest";
    String[] s = str.split(";");
    System.out.println(s.length);
    for(String string: s)
        System.out.println(string);
}

As you have given the sample input the string will be splitted into 3 parts and size of RowData will be 3. So if ITEMVARNUM is greater than 3 you will get an arrayIndexOutOfBounds exception.

RowData = line.split(";",ITEMVARNUM);
for(int j=0;j<ITEMVARNUM;j++){
  //Distribute the line into a 2D array.
   ITEM[i][j] = RowData[j];
}

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 20 '13 at 03:56

Figured it out... when I copied and pasted the data from the website there was and end of line character somehow stored in the .txt file before and after "Shop". I don't understand how I can't see it in notepad, but I replaced each word "Shop" with a semicolon to make four separate fields, and voila. No more mess. Thanks for the ideas y'all.

Java - String.split will not separate by semicolon

5 Answers5