Java quoted string parsing with regex

Question

Suppose I have a string

123 --o 45 xyz 67 "abc def" " ghi jkl m" " " "" xy z

which I need to parse into an array of strings

["123", "--o", "45", "xyz", "67", "abc def", " ghi jkl m", " ", "", "xy", "z"]

My straight approach to split a string by spaces (split("\\s+")) isn't suitable because it separates a string by spaces and doesn't consider double quotes.

But I also need to separate elements which is quoted (" ghi jkl m", "abc def", and " ").

How can I modify my regular expression in method split to achieve my goal?

UPD

We also should consider the spaces.

=> [a, "s ", abc, "", "ad"sdsd"sdsd"]

"ad"sdsd"sdsd" is a sinle element.

Avinash Raj · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-30 14:26:41Z

1

Split your input according to the below regex which uses a positive lookahead assertion.

String text = "123 --o 45 xyz 67 \"abc def\" \" ghi jkl m\" \" \" \"\" xy z";
String parts[] = text.split("\\s+(?=(?:\"[^\"]*\"|[^\"])*$)");
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(parts));

Output:

[123, --o, 45, xyz, 67, "abc def", " ghi jkl m", " ", "", xy, z]

answered Jan 30, 2015 at 14:26

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Avinash Raj

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3 Comments

Avinash Raj Over a year ago

i answered these type of question n number of times. So i make this answer as CW.

barbara Over a year ago

But if I have an element like a"b"c? what about that case? I need to parsed as a string "a"b"c". We need to take into account the spaces.

Avinash Raj Over a year ago

yep, i would return a"b"c. All the above are strings.. Arrays.toString function convert the array elements to strings.

alpha bravo · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-30 15:42:21Z

0

or use this pattern to capture what you want

("[^"]+"|\S+)

Demo

answered Jan 30, 2015 at 15:42

alpha bravo

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2 Comments

barbara Over a year ago

It doesn't split string like this "abc def g"h"i 100" abc 100. should be ["abc def g"h"i 100", "abc", "100"] but I get ["abc def g"h"i", "100", "abc", "100"].

alpha bravo Over a year ago

would you split "abc def g " h " i 100" abc 100. ? into ["abc def g " h " i 100", "abc", "100"] ?

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