How to split string with comma but avoid backslash-comma?

Question

I have a following string:

 161544476293,26220\,1385853403,WLAN-EneTec5,-85,0,0

How to split it with comma but avoid \, case.

In my case above mentioned String should be split as:

161544476293
26220\,1385853403
WLAN-EneTec5
-85
 0
 0

Thanks,

Just to be clear, why wouldn't -85, 0, and 0 be split apart, too? — p.s.w.g
– p.s.w.g, Commented Jan 30, 2014 at 16:47
Are there any other escape sequences involved, e.g. does the format use \\ to escape backslashes too? If you need to ignore \, but still split at \\, then you'll need something more powerful than regular expressions. — Ian Roberts
– Ian Roberts, Commented Jan 30, 2014 at 16:49
Where is the split in something like this: 161544476293,26220\\,1385853403,WLAN-EneTec5,-85,0,0 ? — user557597
– user557597, Commented Jan 30, 2014 at 16:53
This looks like an unusual csv format. Normally anything escaped in a field is surrounded by quotes. — user557597
– user557597, Commented Jan 30, 2014 at 17:06

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-30 16:47:40Z

4

You can use negative lookbehind:

str.split("(?<!\\\\),");

// OUTPUT: "161544476293", "26220\,1385853403", "WLAN-EneTec5", "-85", "0", "0"


(?<!\\\\) Negative Lookbehind - Assert that it is impossible to match the regex below
\\ matches the character \ literally
, matches the character , literally

edited Jan 30, 2014 at 16:47

answered Jan 30, 2014 at 16:42

anubhava

790k67 gold badges603 silver badges671 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

TheConstructor Over a year ago

As long as you don't have cases of escaped-bacskslashes like one\\,two see my answer to a different question

p.s.w.g · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-30 16:42:48Z

3

A pattern like this:

(?<!\\),

Will match any , character not immediately preceded by a \ character. Of course, this is Java, so make sure you escape the \'s in your string literal:

String pattern = "(?<!\\\\),";

answered Jan 30, 2014 at 16:42

p.s.w.g

150k31 gold badges307 silver badges339 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to split string with comma but avoid backslash-comma?

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related