java String with delimiter

Question

I want to split a String by delimiter "|" in Java and get the String array, here is my code:

String str = "123|sdf||";
String[] array = str.split("\\|");

I will get the array with 2 elements: "123","sdf". I expect the array have 4 elements: "123","sdf","",""; is there any existing class I can use to do that? I also tried StringTokernizer, doesn't work

Bohemian · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-14T06:22:19.510

8

The split() method has a secret, optional 2nd parameter!

String[] array = str.split("\\|", -1); // won't discard trailing empty elements

By default, split() (with one parameter) discards trailing empty elements from the result.

If the second parameter is provided, this default discarding behaviour is turned off and if positive limits the number of elements extracted (but will return less than this if less elements found), or if negative returns unlimited elements.

Read about it in the javadoc.

edited Feb 14 '14 at 06:22

answered Feb 14 '14 at 05:56

Bohemian

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Wow. Learn something new about `split` every day. – Makoto Feb 14 '14 at 05:58
@Makoto What else is there left to learn tomorrow? – Sotirios Delimanolis Feb 14 '14 at 05:58

java String with delimiter

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