CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaregexstringsplit
eastCoast
eastCoast

Reputation: 3

Split string in Java, retain delimiters including items inside quotes

I have a .txt input file as follows:

Start "String" (100, 100) Test One:
  Nextline 10;
  Test Second Third(2, 4, 2, 4):
    String "7";
    String "8";
    Test "";
  End;
End.

I've intended to read this file in as one String and then split it based on certain delimiters. I've almost met the desired output with this code:

String tr=  entireFile.replaceAll("\\s+", "");

String[] input = tr.split("(?<=[(,):;.])|(?=[(,):;.])|(?=\\p{Upper})");

My current output is:

Start"
String"
(
100
,
100
)
Test
One
:
Nextline10
;
Test
Second
Third
(
2
,
4
,
2
,
4
)
:
String"7"
;
String"8"
;
Test""
;
End
;
End
.

However, I'm having trouble treating items inside quotes or just plain quotes "" as a separate token. So "String" and "7" and "" should all be on separate lines. Is there a way to do this with regex? My expected output is below, thanks for any help.

Start
"String"
(
100
,
100
)
Test
One
:
Nextline
10
;
Test
Second
Third
(
2
,
4
,
2
,
4
)
:
String
"7"
;
String
"8"
;
Test
""
;
End
;
End
.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 277

Answers (1)

agentwaj
agentwaj

Reputation: 76

Here's the regex I came up with:

String[] input = entireFile.split(
        "\\s+|" +           // Splits on whitespace or 
        "(?<=\\()|" +         // splits on the positive lookbehind ( or
        "(?=[,).:;])|" +  // splits on any of the positive lookaheads ,).:; or
        "((?<!\\s)(?=\\())"); // splits on the positive lookahead ( with a negative lookbehind whitespace

To understand all that positive/negative lookahead/lookbehind terminology, take a look at this answer.

Note that you should apply this split directly to the input file without removing whitespace, aka take out this line:

String tr=  entireFile.replaceAll("\\s+", "");

Upvotes: 4

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