How Can I Split a Java String and Keep All Empty Values, Including Trailing Ones?

Splitting Java Strings Without Removing Empty Values

When attempting to split a Java string using the split(String regex) method, one might expect to retain empty values in the resulting array, particularly if they fall anywhere within the string. However, by default, the split method removes trailing empty values from the output array.

Consider the following code:

String data = "5|6|7||8|9||";
String[] split = data.split("\|");
System.out.println(split.length);

In this example, we expect to obtain eight values in the split array, including empty strings: [5, 6, 7, EMPTY, 8, 9, EMPTY, EMPTY]. However, we unexpectedly end up with only six values due to the automatic removal of trailing empty strings.

To resolve this issue, we can leverage the overloaded split(String regex, int limit) method, where limit is set to a negative value. This instructs the method to refrain from removing trailing empty strings.

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

By invoking the overloaded version, we override the default behavior and preserve all empty values in the split array, regardless of their position.

Additional Insights

It's important to note that the default behavior of removing trailing empty strings only applies when those empty strings are generated as a result of the splitting process. This means that if an empty string exists within the original input string (e.g., "".split(anything)), it will remain in the resulting array because it was not introduced by the splitting mechanism.

This granular understanding of the split method's behavior ensures that developers have greater control over the content of their output arrays when dealing with potentially empty values.

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