Java String.split multiple character delimiter

Question

I would like to parse just one long line from file based on " and , and [ and ] and { and }

For e.g

{"ColumnTypes":"int32","fstring32","int32"],"ColumnNames":"ProductId",","ProductName","Quantity"]}

I actually need two different array from this line column types and column names. I tried string.split("\\W") but it is not working.

Please guide. Thanks in advance.

And you're 100% certain that these characters will not be a part of your string literals? — Bart Kiers
– Bart Kiers, Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 12:32
All those braces and brackets are heavily unbalanced. Are they really like that? If they aren't, this almost looks like JSON, so you could parse your string much more sensibly. — Tim Pietzcker
– Tim Pietzcker, Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 12:33
Hi @TimPietzcker thanks a lot for the input. Yes it may be JSON I am not sure can you please guide me how can I parse it. It is written inside plain schema text file. — Umesh Kacha
– Umesh Kacha, Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 12:58
Try json.org/java, that should contain all the information you need. — Tim Pietzcker
– Tim Pietzcker, Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 14:48

Bohemian · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-26 12:34:32Z

2

You need to split on multiple \\W chars (add a +), but first trim off such chars from the front, so you don't get a blank first element:

String[] array = string.replaceAll("^\\W+", "").split("\\W+");

answered Jun 26, 2013 at 12:34

Bohemian♦

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1 Comment

Bohemian Over a year ago

@TimPietzcker No need. split() drops all trailing blanks from the result. To include the blanks you must call split() with a second parameter of -1 (or a very large number).

Tim Pietzcker · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-26 12:32:14Z

1

The simplest way (with regex) would be to allow more than one non-word character to match:

string.split("\\W+")

answered Jun 26, 2013 at 12:32

Tim Pietzcker

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3 Comments

John Strickler Over a year ago

Try using regex notation /\W+/ instead of "\\W+"

John Strickler Over a year ago

Whoops. No you are right. I had a brain fart. Was thinking JavaScript

Java Devil Over a year ago

Is groovy notation also :)

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