Can't split text that contain "|" in String

Question

I'm wondering why I cannot split a text that contain the | as a separator in String. The splitting works fine when I use commas or the like..

Here is an SSCE

package tests;

public class Tests {        
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        String text1="one|two|three|four|five";
        String text2="one,two,three,four,five";

        String [] splittedText1 = text1.split("|");
        String [] splittedText2 = text2.split(",");

        for(String elem : splittedText1) System.out.println("text1="+elem);
        for(String elem : splittedText2) System.out.println("text2="+elem);
    }    
}

Any ideas why it doesn't work with "|" ??

Answer 1

Since split(String regex) takes a regex and | is a meta character, you need to escape it.

String[] splittedText1 = splittedText1.split("\\|");

Or you can simply use Pattern class

A compiled representation of a regular expression.

String[] splittedText1 = splittedText1.split(Pattern.quote("|"));

Answer 2

Because the split pattern is actually a regex. You need to escape |, since it has a special meaning in the context of a regular expression (it marks an alternative):

String [] splittedText1 = text1.split("\\|");