Question

If I have a string, e.g.

setting=value

How can I remove the ‘=’ and turn that into two separate strings containing ‘setting’ and ‘value’ respectively?

Thanks very much!

Answer 1

Two options spring to mind.

The first split()s the String on =:

String[] pieces = s.split("=", 2);
String name = pieces[0];
String value = pieces.length > 1 ? pieces[1] : null;

The second uses regexes directly to parse the String:

Pattern p = Pattern.compile("(.*?)=(.*)");
Matcher m = p.matcher(s);
if (m.matches()) {
  String name = m.group(1);
  String value = m.group(2);      
}

The second gives you more power. For example you can automatically lose white space if you change the pattern to:

Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\\s*(.*?)\\s*=\\s*(.*)\\s*");