Question

Pattern p = Pattern.compile("(.+)\\s(.+)\\s(.?)$");
Matcher m = p.matcher(line);
System.out.println("Method:");  
System.out.println(m.group(1));
System.out.println(m.group(2));

The code above is my code I use to split this string:

method(public, static, void) main(String[] args){

I want to be able to get method(public, static, void) in a string and main(String[] args) in another string. I don’t want the last { and there may be be spaces between the ) and the {.

My code so far does this:

Method:
method(public, static, void) main(String[]
args){ 

I am not any good at regex. (My code doesn’t currently handle the last {, but I can fix this.) The problem is that I cannot get the line to split how I want it to.

Answer 1

You don’t need Pattern and Matcher here. You should rather use String#split() method to split your string on ), and get first two elements of your array: –

String str = "method(public, static, void) main(String[] args){";

String[] parts = str.split("\\)");

System.out.println(parts[0]);  // method(public, static, void
System.out.println(parts[1]);  // main(String[] args

But, the problem that you can see is, your strings won’t contain the last ) in them.

To include the delimiter in the array elements, you can use look-behind on your regex: – "(?<=\\))". Now, this will split your string on empty character preceded by ).

This is what you need: –

String[] parts = str.split("(?<=\\))");  // split on empty character after )
System.out.println(parts[0]);
System.out.println(parts[1]);

output: –

method(public, static, void)
 main(String[] args)