String.split() using multiple character delimeter

Question

I have a String saved in the database like this:

01/01/2014$%^&02/01/2014

I am using the split() java method. Here is my code:

String value = database.getValue(); // this returns the value mentioned above
String values[] = value.split("$%^&");

System.out.println("length is = " + values.length);
System.out.println(values[0]);

The Output:

length is = 1
01/01/2014$%^&02/01/2014

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Use Pattern#quote :

String values[] = value.split(Pattern.quote("$%^&"));

What am I doing wrong?

String#split takes a regex as its argument. Some characters in your String have special meaning . In your case, you want the String representation, not regex. quote does that for you.

Alternative solutions:

• Escape the special characters by \\\\ (Escaping regex is done by \\ . But in Java, \\ is written \\\\ )
• Use String#replace that accepts String

Answer 2

You can try this too. Here we can escape special characters.

    String value = "01/01/2014$%^&02/01/2014";
    String values[] = value.split("\\$%\\^&");

    System.out.println("length is = " + values.length);
    System.out.println(values[0]);

Out put:

   length is = 2
   01/01/2014