How do I split the string in java?

Question

The string I want to split is as given below.

String text = "    *Some text*   *Another text* *Yet another text*        **last text**";

I need to split the above string so that I can get an array like below.

String[] array = {"Some text", "Another text", "Yet another text", "last text"}

If you notice, first three texts have single asterisk(*) around them, while the last one has double asterisk around it.

Also, texts can have spaces in between eg. *Some text* .

There will be not be any space between text and *

eg *Text* - will happen

*  some text * - will not happen

Can anyone help as I am not aware of regular expressions that much.

Answer 1

Here are the specs deduced from your question and comments:

• Initial * should be followed with a word char (letter/digit/underscore)
• Trailing * should be preceded with a word char

You might use mere "\\\\B\\\\*\\\\b([^*]+)\\\\b\\\\*\\\\B" pattern that asserts the expected positions of the asterisks ( \\\\B\\\\*\\\\b - asterisk after a non-word char or start of string and before a word char, and \\\\b\\\\*\\\\B - an asterisk before a non-word char/end of string and after a word char), and grabs 1 or more character other than * into Group 1.

String s = "    *Some text*   *Another text* *Yet another text*        **last text**";
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\B\\*\\b([^*]+)\\b\\*\\B");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(s);
while (matcher.find()){
    System.out.println(matcher.group(1)); 
} 

A more complex variation to only check if the asterisks are followed/preceded or not with whitespaces ( start|space + * + non-space + any_chars_not_parens + non-space + * + space|end ) can be

"(?<!\\S)\\*(?!\\s)([^*]+)(?<!\\s)\\*(?!\\S)"

See another Java demo