Java RegEx split method

Question

I am looking to split the string "PICK TWO IN ORDER: 10 2 T F" into the following 5 sections.

Str[0] = "PICK TWO IN ORDER"
Str[1] = 10
Str[2] = 2
Str[3] = T
Str[4] = F

I can get the string to split into two parts where it's the string "PICK TWO IN ORDER" and "10 2 T F" by using the regular expression "(:)". However, I cannot seem to figure out how to split the second part. When using the "\s" to split based on spaces it splits the first part into it's four parts.

Is there anyway to limit what part of the string the regular expression parses? Or do I have to use this as a two step process and split them accordingly?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You can use a negative lookahead in your split to only split on whitespace after the :.

String s = "PICK TWO IN ORDER: 10 2 T F";
String[] foo = s.split(":\\s|\\s(?!.*:)");

Output:

PICK TWO IN ORDER
10
2
T
F

Answer 2

The easiest way will just be to do it in two steps:

String str = "PICK TWO IN ORDER: 10 2 T F";
String[] split1 = str.split(":");
String[] split2 = split1[1].trim().split("\\s+");

... with the results being split1[0] and split2.

Answer 3

You could compile a Pattern, and if it matches, use that to populate an array. Something like,

String sentence = "PICK TWO IN ORDER: 10 2 T F";
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("(.+)\\:\\s+(\\d+)\\s+(\\d+)\\s+([T|F])\\s+([T|F])");
Matcher m = p.matcher(sentence);
String[] Str = null;
if (m.find()) {
    Str = new String[m.groupCount()];
    for (int i = 1; i <= Str.length; i++) {
        Str[i - 1] = m.group(i);
    }
}
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(Str));

Which produces a String[] named Str that matches your request.

[PICK TWO IN ORDER, 10, 2, T, F]