Question

How can I parse a String str = "abc, \"def,ghi\"";

such that I get the output as

String[] strs = {"abc", "\"def,ghi\""}

i.e. an array of length 2.

Should I use regular expression or Is there any method in java api or anyother opensource

project which let me do this?

Edited

To give context about the problem, I am reading a text file which has a list of records one on each line. Each record has list of fields separated by delimiter(comma or semi-colon). Now I have a requirement where I have to support text qualifier some thing excel or open office supports. Suppose I have record

abc, “def,ghi”

In this , is my delimiter and ” is my text qualifier such that when I parse this string I should get two fields abc and def,ghi not {abc,def,ghi}

Hope this clears my requirement.

Thanks

Shekhar

Answer 1

The basic algorithm is not too complicated:

 public static List<String> customSplit(String input) {
   List<String> elements = new ArrayList<String>();       
   StringBuilder elementBuilder = new StringBuilder();

   boolean isQuoted = false;
   for (char c : input.toCharArray()) {
     if (c == '\"') {
        isQuoted = !isQuoted;
        // continue;        // changed according to the OP comment - \" shall not be skipped
     }
     if (c == ',' && !isQuoted) {
        elements.add(elementBuilder.toString().trim());
        elementBuilder = new StringBuilder();
        continue;
     }
     elementBuilder.append(c); 
   }
   elements.add(elementBuilder.toString().trim()); 
   return elements;
}