Java split function eliminating spaces

Question

I am trying to put strings into an array which have a space as a delimiter, it works great except for the first string has a space in front and so the first element in the array is "" instead of the first string.

    public static String[] loadMessage(String fileName)
        throws FileNotFoundException {
    String[] s = null;
    File f = new File(fileName + ".txt");
    Scanner inFile = new Scanner(f);
    while (inFile.hasNext()) {
        s = inFile.nextLine().split(" ");

    }
    inFile.close();
    return s;

}

Is there any easy solution or do I have to write another Scanner and delimiters and what not.

I don't think this actually quite works to begin with. You're throwing out everything in the file except for the last line (unless your file only has one line anyway). — tnw
– tnw, Commented Apr 27, 2015 at 19:49
docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/String.html#trim() — ControlAltDel
– ControlAltDel, Commented Apr 27, 2015 at 19:50

icza · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-27 19:57:21Z

3

Call String.trim() on each read line which removes leading and trailing spaces:

s = inFile.nextLine().trim().split(" ");

You can also use Files.readAllLines() to read all lines into a List:

for (String line : Files.readAllLines(Paths.get(fileName + ".txt",
                 StandardCharsets.UTF_8))) {
    String[] words = line.trim().split(" ");
    // do something with words
}

edited Apr 27, 2015 at 19:57

answered Apr 27, 2015 at 19:50

icza

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Comments

Joffrey · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-27 19:50:00Z

2

Use the trim() method to remove leading and trailing whitespaces:

s = inFile.nextLine().trim().split(" ");

But, as @tnw pointed out, only the last line is taken into account in your code...

answered Apr 27, 2015 at 19:50

Joffrey

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1 Comment

recycledElectrons Over a year ago

Yeah, I know, It would only grab one line, it's probably lazy but for now it only needs to grab one. @tnw

Giancarlo Romeo · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-02 11:05:48Z

2

You can use trim() method before splitting.

edited Feb 2, 2018 at 11:05

answered Apr 27, 2015 at 19:50

Giancarlo Romeo

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:51:05Z

0

Also you can use regular expression. If you want to save first space, do you need something like this:

s = inFile.nextLine().split("[^s]\\s+");

if you are interested, you will learn more about regex here

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:51

CommunityBot

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answered Apr 27, 2015 at 21:09

mkUltra

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