splitting a string with multiple delimiters

[ash chowdary]

hi all,

how to split a string based on multiple delimiting characters.

for example i have these delimiters in string array---->String[] sep_list = { " ", "\n","[","]","{","}","(",")"};

how can we split it in one go...

[Rob Spoor]

String.split takes a regular expression. Take a look at the API of java.util.regex.Pattern to see what this pattern can look like. You can read there how to get a "choice" pattern.

[Mikko Kohtamäki]

First I would replace
String[] sep_list = { " ", "\n","[","]","{","}","(",")"};
with
Character[] sep_list = { ' ', '\n', '[', ']', '{', '}', '(', ')' };
or not

Then look at java.util.regex.Pattern class, it has static method called quote(String) and it returns "A literal string replacement"

Now you call it like Pattern.quote(sep_list[someIndex].toString()) and add it to your pattern. Strings in pattern are separated with [] characters
and all of them are surrounded with [] characters too. Example [[string][string]]

[Campbell Ritchie]

I don't understand all of that last posting. Are you sure about [] pairs? It is worthwhile looking through the Java™ Tutorials where there is a very good introduction to regular expressions.

[Mikko Kohtamäki]

OK sorry, here is complete example. This is first time when I did this too.

String[] sep_list = { " ", "\n", "[", "]", "{", "}", "(", ")" };
StringBuffer regexp = new StringBuffer("");
regexp.append("[");
for(String s : sep_list) {
    regexp.append("[");
    regexp.append(Pattern.quote(s));
    regexp.append("]");
}
regexp.append("]");

String orginal = "a b\nc[d]e{f}g(h)i";
StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer("");
String[] a = orginal.split(regexp.toString());
for(String string : a) {
    result.append(string);
}
System.out.println(result);

[Rob Spoor]

Mikko Kohtamäki wrote:

regexp.append("[");
for(String s : sep_list) {
    regexp.append("[");
    regexp.append(Pattern.quote(s));
    regexp.append("]");
}
regexp.append("]");

You don't need those [ and ] inside the loop; [abc] work just fine without having to writen [[a][b][c]]. And you don't need the inner [] for escaping because that's what the Pattern.quote will do.

[Campbell Ritchie]

So that's what the [] meant.

Thank you.

[Mikko Kohtamäki]

Yes no need for [] characters inside the loop. I did not realize the meaning of quote word , thanks for correcting me Rob. In my first post I did try to explain it first but failed though

[Campbell Ritchie]

Mikko Kohtamäki wrote: . . , thanks . . .