Question

System.out.println(
    Arrays.deepToString(
        "abc<def>ghi".split("(?:<)|(?:>)")
    )
);

This prints [abc, def, ghi], as if I had split on "<|>". I want it to print [abc, <def>, ghi]. Is there a way to work some regex magic to accomplish what I want here?

---

Perhaps a simpler example:

System.out.println(
    Arrays.deepToString(
        "Hello! Oh my!! Good bye!!".split("(?:!+)")
    )
);

This prints [Hello, Oh my, Good bye]. I want it to print [Hello!, Oh my!!, Good bye!!].
`.

Answer 1

Thanks to information from Cine, I think these are the answers I’m looking for:

System.out.println(
    Arrays.deepToString(
        "abc<def>ghi<x><x>".split("(?=<)|(?<=>)")
    )
); // [abc, <def>, ghi, <x>, <x>]


System.out.println(
    Arrays.deepToString(
        "Hello! Oh my!! Good bye!! IT WORKS!!!".split("(?<=!++)")
    )
); // [Hello!,  Oh my!!,  Good bye!!,  IT WORKS!!!]

Now, the second one was honestly discovered by experimenting with all the different quantifiers. Neither greedy nor reluctant work, but possessive does.

I’m still not sure why.