String.split("").......Confusion.

[Shailesh Vohra]

I am running below code :

String s3 = "ABC$$DEF$$P QR$$XYZ";
String []s2 = s3.split("$$");

for (int i = 0; i < s2.length; i++) {
System.out.println(s2[i]);
}

Here i am using regex : "$$" as a delimiter.
but output i am getting is same as inp String. i.e ABC$$DEF$$P QR$$XYZ

But this is not my desired output.
i want output as
ABC
DEF
P QR
XYZ.

Please help to explain me. also when i use delimiter "|" why do i have to use escape sequence.
String.split("\\|").

[Larry Chung]

You got very close to your answer. Change the split() method call so that you use "\\$"
as the argument:

String s3 = "ABC$$DEF$$P QR$$XYZ"; 
String []s2 = s3.split("\\$"); 

for (int i = 0; i < s2.length; i++) { 
System.out.println(s2[i]); 
} 

[Shailesh Vohra]

thanks Larry.
But i want to use "$$" as a delimiter and not "$".
and i am passing it correctly (hope so). as String.split("$$")
Please explain why its not printing desired output.

[Henry Wong]

Shailesh Vohra wrote:Please explain why its not printing desired output.

The split() method takes a regular expression -- and "$" has special meaning in a regex. If you want an actual "$", you will need to escape it. And if you want two "$", then you need to escape both of them.

Henry

[Larry Chung]

OK, Shailesh, I get it. Change the split() method call to as shown below:

String s3 = "ABC$$DEF$$P QR$$XYZ";   
String []s2 = s3.split("\\$\\$");   
  
for (int i = 0; i < s2.length; i++) {   
System.out.println(s2[i]);   
}   
    

[Nidhi Sar]

Shailesh,

Changing your program to this will get the output you are looking for:

		String s3 = "ABC$$DEF$$P QR$$XYZ"; 
		String []s2 = s3.split("\\$\\$"); 

		for (int i = 0; i < s2.length; i++) { 
		System.out.println(s2[i]); 
		} 

The reason that you have to escape $ and | is that both these characters have a special meaning in Regex.
$ indicates 'end of a line' for boundry matches
| indicates the 'or' logical operator

Check out the api document of Pattern class for all the details you need about different characters.

HTH,
Nidhi

[Shailesh Vohra]

thanks Larry and Henry for that explanation.
Also do "|" also have special meaning in regex??
because i need to use String.split("\\|").

[Shailesh Vohra]

thanks nidhi.
i will surely go through the Regex in more details.

[Henry Wong]

Shailesh Vohra wrote:Also do "|" also have special meaning in regex??

yes

[Kuba Zygmunt]

Look at http://www.regular-expressions.info/quickstart.html

a|b means to look for a or b

[Dhiraj Bankar]

Shailesh Vohra wrote:I am running below code :

String s3 = "ABC$$DEF$$P QR$$XYZ";
String []s2 = s3.split("$$");

for (int i = 0; i < s2.length; i++) {
System.out.println(s2[i]);
}

Here i am using regex : "$$" as a delimiter.
but output i am getting is same as inp String. i.e ABC$$DEF$$P QR$$XYZ

But this is not my desired output.
i want output as
ABC
DEF
P QR
XYZ.

Please help to explain me. also when i use delimiter "|" why do i have to use escape sequence.
String.split("\\|").

you shold try this.

String s3 = "ABC$$DEF$$P QR$$XYZ";
String []s2 = s3.split("\\$\\$");

for (int i = 0; i < s2.length; i++) {
System.out.println(s2[i]);
}