Question

For example

String splits[] = ("||").split("[|]") 

System.out.println(splits.length) returns 0. Whereas I expected it to return 2. Whats the best way to solve this problem ?

Answer 1

The default operation of split() is to discard trailing empty strings. Since every resulting string is empty, no strings will be returned.

More precisely, calling split(String) is the same as calling split(String, int) with the second parameter set to 0.

And 0 means (emphasis mine):

… the pattern will be applied as many times as possible, the array can have any length, and trailing empty strings will be discarded.

If you want to keep trailing empty strings (and don’t want to limit the number of elements), then pass in a negative value (I’d suggest -1):

String splits[] = "||".split("\\|", -1);