Split string on spaces in Java, except if between quotes (i.e. treat \”hello world\” as one token) [duplicate]

by

Here’s how:

String str = "Location \"Welcome  to india\" Bangalore " +
             "Channai \"IT city\"  Mysore";

List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
Matcher m = Pattern.compile("([^\"]\\S*|\".+?\")\\s*").matcher(str);
while (m.find())
    list.add(m.group(1)); // Add .replace("\"", "") to remove surrounding quotes.


System.out.println(list);

Output:

[Location, "Welcome  to india", Bangalore, Channai, "IT city", Mysore]

The regular expression simply says

  • [^"]     – token starting with something other than "
  • \S*       – followed by zero or more non-space characters
  • …or…
  • ".+?"   – a "-symbol followed by whatever, until another ".

More Related Contents:

  1. How to compare variables in a loop, java
  2. How to split a string, but also keep the delimiters?
  3. How to run Unix shell script from Java code?
  4. How do I run a batch file from my Java Application?
  5. MySQLSyntaxErrorException near “?” when trying to execute PreparedStatement
  6. Why use @PostConstruct?
  7. What is the difference between Serializable and Externalizable in Java?
  8. URLEncoder not able to translate space character
  9. What is the difference between method overloading and overriding? [duplicate]
  10. Extract digits from a string in Java
  11. What is the difference between Swing and AWT?
  12. Method chaining + inheritance don’t play well together?
  13. How to configure encoding in Maven?
  14. Best Way to Write Bytes in the Middle of a File in Java
  15. Disable Spring Security for OPTIONS Http Method
  16. How to bind an object list with thymeleaf?
  17. Does adding a JLabel to a JPanel “hide” the JPanel?
  18. Java inheritance fields [duplicate]
  19. Use of the String(String) constructor in Java [duplicate]
  20. Showing a Spring transaction in log
  21. What to do with Java BigDecimal performance?
  22. Mock final class with Mockito 2
  23. Java make a directed line and make it move
  24. Eclipse crashes at startup; Exit code=13
  25. Forming Mockito “grammars”
  26. Java – Gson parsing nested within nested
  27. java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space with NetBeans
  28. Object vs Reference in Java
  29. How to write a generic method that takes two arguments of the same types in java?
  30. How to disable TestNG test based on a condition

Leave a Comment