Java: Split a string into separate string and integer variables

Question

I have been looking for an answer but I haven't had luck finding one that can quite help me (someone may know where to point me).

I want to split a string up into a string variable and two integer variables. I am wondering if there is anyway to user the string split method I discovered and use it for int variables through some other way?

Code:

import java.util.Scanner;

public class StringInputStream {
   public static void main (String [] args) {
      Scanner inSS = null;
      String userInput = "Jan 12 1992";
      inSS = new Scanner(userInput);

      String userMonth = "";
      int userDate = 0;
      int userYear = 0;

      // Can modify anything below here
      String[] temp = userInput.split(" ", 2); // "1" means stop splitting after one space
      userMonth = temp[0];
      userDate = temp[1];
      userYear = temp[2];
      // Can modify anything above here

      System.out.println("Month: " + userMonth);
      System.out.println("Date: " + userDate);
      System.out.println("Year: " + userYear);

      return;
   }
}

Example output:

Month: Jan
Date: 12
Year: 1992

easiest way will be to ask the user to enter the day, month and year separately (3 calls to scanner) and validate each one separately. — Nir Alfasi
– Nir Alfasi, Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 4:33

Elliott Frisch · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-21 04:19:13Z

4

Based on your comments, and code using a Scanner. I think you wanted

userMonth = inSS.next();
userDate = inSS.nextInt();
userYear = inSS.nextInt();

But if the Scanner isn't required for your assignment, then you could certainly eliminate it and use something like

String userInput = "Jan 12 1992";
String[] tokens = userInput.split("\\s+"); // <-- split on one or more spaces
String userMonth = tokens[0];
int userDate = Integer.parseInt(tokens[1]);
int userYear = Integer.parseInt(tokens[2]);

answered Nov 21, 2016 at 4:19

Elliott Frisch

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2 Comments

Aramza Over a year ago

So using the next method will follow through and skip whatever value I declare?

Elliott Frisch Over a year ago

@Aramza I'm not sure what you are asking, you have inSS = new Scanner(userInput); which means your Scanner is reading your predefined String. The next() reads a String (Jan), the nextInt reads 12 and the third nextInt reads 1992. In the second version I skip the Scanner and use String.split.

Julian · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-21 10:06:25Z

I do not want to use a sledge-hammer to crack a nut :-) but depending on the flexibility that you need in you application with respect to the input provided, you could use a parser for your problem. If you take the grammar below and put it into ANTLR, you could parse the input string and extract the semantic elements from it. You could even handle different input permutations such as Jan 1999 12, 1999 Mar 12, and so on.

grammar SimpleMixed;
fragment A:('a'|'A');
fragment B:('b'|'B');
fragment C:('c'|'C');
fragment D:('d'|'D');
fragment E:('e'|'E');
fragment F:('f'|'F');
fragment G:('g'|'G');
fragment H:('h'|'H');
fragment I:('i'|'I');
fragment J:('j'|'J');
fragment K:('k'|'K');
fragment L:('l'|'L');
fragment M:('m'|'M');
fragment N:('n'|'N');
fragment O:('o'|'O');
fragment P:('p'|'P');
fragment Q:('q'|'Q');
fragment R:('r'|'R');
fragment S:('s'|'S');
fragment T:('t'|'T');
fragment U:('u'|'U');
fragment V:('v'|'V');
fragment W:('w'|'W');
fragment X:('x'|'X');
fragment Y:('y'|'Y');
fragment Z:('z'|'Z');

s: userinput EOF;
userinput: month date year
    | month year date
    | year month date
    | year date month
    | date year month
    | date month year;

month: Month;
date: Date;
year: Year;
Month: J A N |  F E B | M A R | A P R | M A Y | J U N | J U L | A U G | S E P      |
O C T | N O V | D E C;

Date: [1-9][0-2]?;

Year: [1-9][0-9][0-9][0-9];


WS  :  [ \t\r\n]+ -> skip;

Let's suppose a user provides input jan 1999 12. After parsing it with the parser generated from Antlr from the grammar above, you would get the parse tree below from which you could easily extract the semantic elements based on which you can infer the datatype and create the appropriate objects (e.g. int for year and date, and String for month).

xiaofeng.li · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-21 04:31:54Z

-1

Seems like you're dealing with date strings, better use the specific library.

Java 8

import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
import java.time.temporal.*;

TemporalAccessor d = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MMM DD yyyy").parse("Jan 12 1992")
d.get(ChronoField.YEAR); // 1992
d.get(ChronoField.MONTH_OF_YEAR); // 1
d.get(ChronoField.DAY_OF_MONTH); // 12

Before Java 8 (java.text.SimpleDateFormat)

Date d = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM DD yyyy").parse("Jan 12 1992");
Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
c.setTime(d);
c.get(Calendar.YEAR); // 1992
c.get(Calendar.MONTH); // 0 - yeah, it starts from 0, embarrassingly
c.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH); // 12

Or use JodaTime

DateTimeFormat.forPattern("MMM DD yyyy").parseDateTime("Jan 12 1992");

edited Nov 21, 2016 at 4:31

answered Nov 21, 2016 at 4:19

xiaofeng.li

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3 Comments

Vikrant Kashyap Over a year ago

this answer only applied if installed java version is 1.8+. @LukeLee

Scary Wombat Over a year ago

Month of year is still required to be a String

xiaofeng.li Over a year ago

OP is dealing with date times, let's not complicate the problem and not use a proper date time library.

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