Referencing values from an array in java

Question

When splitting a simple array using Java, how can I reference the specific values without using println?

I have a string separated by "||" - I want to manipulate that string such that I can call each half of it and assign each bit to a new string. If this was php I'd use list() or explode(), but I can't seem to get the variables to work.

I want to

output the contents of each half of the temp array to the screen and
join the portions together as message = temp[0]+ "-"+ temp[1]; doesn't seem to work.

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_display_message);
             if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) {
            // Show the Up button in the action bar.
             getActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
           }
    Intent intent = getIntent();       
    String message = intent.getStringExtra(MainActivity.SENTMESSAGE);

    //The string is (correctly) submitted in the format foo||bar
    String delimiter = "||";
    String[] temp = message.split(delimiter);

    //??? How do I output temp[0] and temp[1] to the screen without using println?

    //This gives me a single character from one of the variables e.g. f-
    for(int i =0; i < temp.length ; i++)
    message = temp[0]+ "-"+ temp[1];

    //if I escape the above 2 lines this shows foo||bar to the eclipse screen
    TextView textView = new TextView(this);
    textView.setTextSize(40);
    textView.setText(message);

    // Set the text view as the activity layout
    setContentView(textView); 
}

"How do I output temp[0] and temp[1] to the screen without using println" seriously without using println? maybe use print, printf, JOptionPane.showMessageDialog, etc? — Baby
– Baby, Commented Jan 22, 2014 at 1:17
Eclipse said there was an error when I use System.out.println() as it is in a void class. — Simeon
– Simeon, Commented Jan 22, 2014 at 1:19
Why did you put it as single String instead of e.g. Intent#putStringArrayListExtra(..) — zapl
– zapl, Commented Jan 22, 2014 at 1:22

Pshemo · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-22 01:42:44Z

7

At fist glance it seems that your problem is here

String delimiter = "||";
String[] temp = message.split(delimiter);

because split uses regex as parameter and in regex | is special character representing OR. So with || you split on: empty String "" OR empty string "" OR empty String "".
Since empty String is always before each character and after character result of split such as "abc".split("||") will be ["", "a", "b", "c"] (last empty Strings by default removed are removed from result array).

To solve this problem you will have to escape |. You can do it by placing \ (which in Java needs to be written as "\\") before this metacharacter or you can just use Pattern.quote(regex) to escape all regex metacharacters for you. Try

String delimiter = "||";
String[] temp = message.split(Pattern.quote(delimiter));

edited Jan 22, 2014 at 1:42

answered Jan 22, 2014 at 1:18

Pshemo

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1 Comment

Simeon Over a year ago

Ahhhh. Thank you so much. I thought I was going mad.

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