Java string split giving unexpected result

Question

I have this string

String x = "2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-13.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-22.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-31.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-40.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-49.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-58.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-64.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4";

if i'm doing the split like this String vec2 [] = x.split(","); the output it will be this

2013-04-17T08:00:00.001
41.14806
-9.58972
-13.0
0.0
0.0
-20.0

and so on.

If I'm doing the split like this String vec2[] = x.split("|"); the output is this:

and so on.

And I would expect something similar to this:

    2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-13.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4
    2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-22.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4
    and so on

Any idea what's wrong?

possible duplicate of stackoverflow.com/questions/1433115/… — Ankit
– Ankit, Commented Apr 17, 2013 at 9:03
@NoobUnChained I think this is because he wanted it to be bolded. — Maroun
– Maroun, Commented Apr 17, 2013 at 9:08
Exactly, it was bolded, but someone edited to be in code format (and i'm thankful, because it's better to see) but that ** stayed there. Now it's correct. Thanks everybody for the answers, helped me a lot! Regards — unpix
– unpix, Commented Apr 17, 2013 at 9:15

Maroun · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-17 09:04:35Z

10

You need to escape the |:

String vec2[] = x.split("\\|");

That's because the argument to split() is a regex not a string.

In regexes, some characters have special meanings. The vertical bar | represens alternation. So if you want to split according to |, you need to write \\| which like telling: "Don't take | as a special character, take it as the symbol |".

edited Apr 17, 2013 at 9:04

answered Apr 17, 2013 at 8:59

Maroun

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Maroun · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-17 09:03:15Z

2

The argument to split is a regular expression and the "|" character has special meaning. Try escaping it \\|.

edited Apr 17, 2013 at 9:03

Maroun

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answered Apr 17, 2013 at 8:59

forty-two

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mthmulders · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-17 09:00:36Z

1

String.split(String) splits on a regular expression, not on a character. As you can see in the summary of Java regular expression constructs, the | functions as an or construct.

If you want to split on the | character, you might need to escape it using \|. Note that to escape it in a Java String, you'll need to escape the backslash as well: \\|.

answered Apr 17, 2013 at 9:00

mthmulders

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npinti · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-17 09:00:50Z

The problem is that the split(String regex) takes a regular expression as argument. The pipe (|) is a special character in regex and must thus be escaped:

        String x = "2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-13.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-22.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-31.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-40.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-49.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-58.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-64.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4";
        String[] arr = x.split("\\|");
        for(String str : arr)
        {
            System.out.println(str);
        }

Yields:

2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-13.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4
2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-22.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4
2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-31.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4
2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-40.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4
2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-49.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4
2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-58.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4
2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-64.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4

Ravindra Shekhawat · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-17 09:00:58Z

1

Try this

 String vec2[] = x.split("\\|");

answered Apr 17, 2013 at 9:00

Ravindra Shekhawat

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Kevin Bowersox · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-17 09:01:00Z

1

You need to escape the | character, since it is the regex or pattern.

String x = "2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-13.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-22.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-31.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-40.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-49.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-58.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4|2013-04-17T08:00:00.001,41.14806,-9.58972,-64.0,0.0,0.0,-20.0,4";
String[] arr = x.split("\\|");
for(String s: arr){
    System.out.println(s);
}

answered Apr 17, 2013 at 9:01

Kevin Bowersox

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dinukadev · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-17 09:01:06Z

0

did you try escaping the character as such

x.split("\\|");

answered Apr 17, 2013 at 9:01

dinukadev

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1 Comment

npinti Over a year ago

You need to add an extra \ since the \ itself must also be escaped.

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