Java: Split line by Unix new line character

Question

I have this data in my input file u,9,1,bid\nu,11,5,ask\nq,best_bid\nu,10,2,bid\nq,best_bid\no,sell,1\nq,size,10\nu,9,0,bid\nu,11,0,ask\n How can I split it by \n so the formatted line will be

u,11,5,ask
q,best_bid
u,10,2,bid
q,best_bid
o,sell,1
q,size,10
u,9,0,bid
u,11,0,ask

I've already tried String[] s = line.split("\\n") but this didnt help me!

Answer 1

This is to explain why line.split("\\n") doesn't work. See below for a quicker solution.

"\\n" matches a newline . Your file contains literal \n s (that is, backslashes followed by the letter "n") instead, so you need to escape the backslash as well.

line.split("\\\\n")

Then you can join them with a \n .

So

String joined = String.join("\n", line.split("\\\\n"));
System.out.println(joined);

Which outputs

u,9,1,bid
u,11,5,ask
q,best_bid
u,10,2,bid
q,best_bid
o,sell,1
q,size,10
u,9,0,bid
u,11,0,ask

---

Having said that, if you don't intend to do any intermediate step with the result of splitting the line, you might as well replace the literal \n with an actual newline

line.replace("\\n", "\n");