String.split(pattern) throws exception due to { in pattern: java.util.regex.PatternSyntaxException

Question

I have a String in Java. Here is the part of it that I'm concerned with {3: {108:TR2011052300088}}

Later on I do a split on {3: {108:. For some reason (I've been googling) { and } is a special character so it has to be escaped \} and \{ (clearly this doesn't work -> compile time error).

Others mention this is some bug in Java regex. I'm not sure really. The exception I get is:

Exception in thread "main" java.util.regex.PatternSyntaxException: Unclosed counted closure near index 2 {3:{108: at java.util.regex.Pattern.error(Unknown Source)

Long story short, my code splits the string using {3: {108: as the separator and crashes on it:

String query="{3: {108:";
String [] messageParts = message.split(query);

I am aware of other ways to do it, albeit more complicated, like writing my own parser and such.

How can I do my string split and not have it crash?

EDIT: To answer some comments:
- Double slashes don't help: \\{ give \{3:\{108:MAMABEARid123}} since 2 slashes become 1
- Escaping with 1 slash won't compile: Invalid Escape sequence

Perhaps escaping the } would help? It's telling you that it's trying to interpret the brackets. — Brian Roach
– Brian Roach, Commented Mar 7, 2012 at 16:06
When you say "clearly this doesn't work" it would help if you'd say in what way it didn't work. — Jon Skeet
– Jon Skeet, Commented Mar 7, 2012 at 16:08

assylias · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-07 16:08:52Z

6

Example to escape the {:

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String s = "{3: {108:TR2011052300088}}";
        String[] ss  = s.split("\\{3: \\{108:");
        System.out.println(ss[1]); //prints TR2011052300088}}
    }

answered Mar 7, 2012 at 16:08

assylias

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1 Comment

Adrian Over a year ago

it turns out I had to do a clean build of my project in order to be able to add \\{ to a String. Just FYI I combine the pattern with the result of the split so that's escaped differently by when I print it ugh

Jon Skeet · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-07 16:09:44Z

0

Assuming you don't really need regular expressions, I'd use Guava's Splitter class.

private static final Splitter SPLITTER = Splitter.on("{3: {108:");

...

Iterable<String> bits = SPLITTER.split(messageParts);

(You can use Iterables.toArray to create an array from that, or Lists.newArrayList for a list, or whatever...)

answered Mar 7, 2012 at 16:09

Jon Skeet

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Kennet · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-07 16:37:08Z

0

Remove the curly brackets and then split on colon:

String inp = "{3: {108:TR2011052300088}}";

System.out.println(inp.replaceAll("[\\{\\}]", "").split(":")[2])

Prints 'TR2011052300088'

answered Mar 7, 2012 at 16:37

Kennet

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B. Jacobs · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-06 07:21:47Z

-2

Use [{] ..... I've worked with Regex for Swift messages before

answered Dec 6, 2013 at 7:21

B. Jacobs

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