split a String with a separator in trailing position in Scala

Question

The method split do NOT deal with the separator in trailing position.

@ "a-b-".split("-")
res9: Array[String] = Array("a", "b")

However, I would expect Array("a", "b", "")

Any way to fix that ?

Answer 1

You may pass additional parameter limit to the function (which is zero by default):

scala> "a-b-".split("-", -1)
res3: Array[String] = Array(a, b, "")

scala> "-----".split("-", -1)
res4: Array[String] = Array("", "", "", "", "", "")

Documentation :

The limit parameter controls the number of times the pattern is applied and therefore affects the length of the resulting array. If the limit n is greater than zero then the pattern will be applied at most n - 1 times, the array's length will be no greater than n, and the array's last entry will contain all input beyond the last matched delimiter. If n is non-positive then the pattern will be applied as many times as possible and the array can have any length. If n is zero then the pattern will be applied as many times as possible, the array can have any length, and trailing empty strings will be discarded.