How do I take an array of strings and separate them further into objects?

Question

I have an array of strings identifying a pet name, type of animal, age and their owner's name (each attribute is separated by a comma):

String[] petInfo = ["Spot, dog, 2, Joey", "Kip, dog, 3, Jack", "Snuffles, cat, 1, Jane" , "Franklin, turtle, 4, Arthur",...]

I created a pet class with members string petName, string type, int age and string ownerName.

public class Pet
{
string petName; 
string type;
int age;
string ownerName;

//getters
}

In my main I declared

List<Pet> pets = new ArrayList<Pet>();

I want to create an array of pet objects using an arraylist. I know I have to use split to get through the original array but that leaves me with another array of comma separated values for one pet. How do I write a loop that can go through the petInfo array and add those values to each pet object in my list?

Answer 1

Here is all you need:

    import java.util.ArrayList;
    import java.util.List;

    public class Main {
        public static void main(String[] args) {
            String[] petInfo = {"Spot, dog, 2, Joey", "Kip, dog, 3, Jack", "Snuffles, cat, 1, Jane" , "Franklin, turtle, 4, Arthur"};
            List<Pet> pets = new ArrayList<Pet>();
            for (String singlePetInfo : petInfo) {
                pets.add(getPetFromString(singlePetInfo));
            }

            pets.forEach(System.out::println);
        }

        private static Pet getPetFromString(String petDescription){
            String[] split = petDescription.split(", ");
            return new Pet(split[0], split[1], Integer.parseInt(split[2]), split[3]);
        }
    }

Answer 2

A very verbose example: This method takes the array and converts the pet parts to a pet. Returning the list of pets at the end.

public List<Pet> toPets(String[] petArray) {
  List<Pet> pets = new ArrayList();
  for (String petAsString: petArray) {
     String[] petParts = petAsString.split(",");
     String petName = petParts[0].trim();
     String type = petParts[1].trim();
     int age = Integer.parseInt(petParts[2].trim());
     String ownerName = petParts[3].trim();
     Pet pet = new Pet(petName, type, age, ownerName);
     pets.add(pet);
  }
  return pets;
}

Answer 3

I wrote a solution. There are two key points. Splitting string can cause faulty solutions. That's why, I added a proper regex. Also you need to take care of integer conversion. Using integer class makes it easy for you.

    String[] petInfo = {"Spot, dog, 2, Joey", "Kip, dog, 3, Jack", "Snuffles, cat, 1, Jane" , "Franklin, turtle, 4, Arthur"};
    List<Pet> pets = new ArrayList<Pet>();

    for (int i = 0; i < petInfo.length; i++) {
        String[] pet = petInfo[i].split("\\s*,\\s*");
        pets.add(new Pet(pet[0], pet[1], Integer.parseInt(pet[2]), pet[3]));
    }

Answer 4

You can create a Constructor or helper method to create Pet object from given string.

Following is code snippet for constructor. See here the complete working code :

Pet(String val)
{
    String[] vals = val.trim().split(",");
    petName = vals[0].trim();
    type = vals[1].trim();
    age = Integer.valueOf(vals[2].trim());
    ownerName = vals[3].trim();
}

To use it, you can do something like following:

    String[] petInfo = new String[]{"Spot, dog, 2, Joey", 
        "Kip, dog, 3, Jack", "Snuffles, cat, 1, Jane" , "Franklin, turtle, 4, Arthur"};
    ArrayList<Pet> list = new ArrayList();
    for(String p:petInfo)
    {
        list.add(new Pet(p));
    }

Answer 5

Take your petInfo array and go through it with a for loop. Then you split your string and create a new Pet object, then you can just add it to your List<Pet> called pets

List<Pet> pets = new ArrayList<Pet>();

//Renamed it to petInfos, for better usage in the for loop
String[] petInfos = ["Spot, dog, 2, Joey", "Kip, dog, 3, Jack", "Snuffles, cat, 1, Jane" ,
    "Franklin, turtle, 4, Arthur",...]

for(String petInfo : petInfos){
   String[] petInfoSplitted = petInfo.split(", ");

   pets.add(new Pet(petInfoSplitted[0], petInfoSplitted[1],
       Integer.parseInt(petInfoSplitted[2]), petInfoSplitted[3]);
}

I hope my awnser was helpfull.