Splitting String in Java with empty elements

Question

I'm reading from a .csv File line by line. One line could look for example as following: String str = "10,1,,,,".

Now I would like to split according to ",": String[] splitted = str.split(","); The problem now is that this only results in 2 elements but I would like to have 5 elements, the first two elements should contain 10 and 1 and the other 3 should be just an empty String.

Another example is String str = "0,,,,," which results in only one element but I would like to have 5 elements.

The last example is String str = "9,,,1,," which gives 2 elements (9 and 1), but I would like to have 5 elements. The first element should be 9 and the fourth element should be 1 and all other should be an empty String.

How can this be done?

""0,,,,," ... I would like to have 5 elements." 5 commas means 6 elements, if you retain them all. — Andy Turner
– Andy Turner, Commented Feb 11, 2016 at 14:44

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 10:28:24Z

5

You need to use it with -1 parameter

String[] splitted = str.split(",", -1);

This has been discussed before, e.g. Java: String split(): I want it to include the empty strings at the end

But split really shouldn't be the way you parse a csv, you could run into problems when you have a String value containing a comma

23,"test,test","123.88"

split would split the row into 4 parts:

[23, "test, test", "123.88"]

and I don't think you want that.

edited May 23, 2017 at 10:28

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answered Feb 11, 2016 at 14:42

radoh

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2 Comments

machinery Over a year ago

Thank you for your answer. How would you parse a csv file instead?

radoh Over a year ago

I'd look for some library stackoverflow.com/questions/101100/csv-api-for-java or stackoverflow.com/questions/843997/…

Peter Lawrey · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-11 14:43:39Z

3

split only drops trailing delimeters by default. You can turn this off with

String str = "9,,,1,,";
String[] parts = str.split(",", -1);
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(parts));

prints

[9, , , 1, , ]

answered Feb 11, 2016 at 14:43

Peter Lawrey

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Comments

Andy Turner · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-11 14:48:22Z

3

Pass -1 (or any negative number, actually) as a second parameter to split:

System.out.println("0,,,,,".split(",", -1).length); // Prints 6.

edited Feb 11, 2016 at 14:48

answered Feb 11, 2016 at 14:43

Andy Turner

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1 Comment

radoh Over a year ago

First argument of split is a String, not char ;)

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