Java split Method

String text = "apple,orange,banana";
String[] fruits = text.split(",");

Syntax of split Java method

Following are the ways of using the split method:

• In this way of using the split method, the complete string will be broken.
• The regex (regular expression) defines the pattern. It can be a character like space, comma, complex expressions with special characters, etc. You may learn more about regex constructs.
• The split function returns an array of broken strings that you may manipulate just like the normal array in Java.

You may also use this method as follows:

That is, limit the number of splits in the given string by using the limit argument. The limit is given as int.

See the section below for examples with code and output.

An example of completely breaking the string by split method

For demonstrating the Java string split method, a string object is created and assigned a value.

In the split method, the delimiter used for breaking the string is a space character. As no limit parameter is provided, so complete string will break:

public class split_demo {

          public static void main(String args[]) {

                

                    String str_split = new String("The String split method");

                    System.out.println("The string after split :\n" );     

                   

                    //Using split method with a space regex

                    for (String str: str_split.split(" ")) {

                       System.out.println(str);

                    }

                 }

}

Output:

You see, the string is broken into four pieces. The for loop is used to iterate through the returned array to display its items.

Using the string split with limit parameter example

Suppose, you want to break the phone numbers that are in string format as follows:

456-434-8987

You just need to break this from first dash character while keeping the second intact. This is where limit parameter can play its role. Otherwise, simply using the split method will break the string completely; in that case, in three pieces. See the code below:

public class split_demo {

          public static void main(String args[]) {

                

                    String str_tel = "458-758-8975";

                    System.out.println("The Phone after split with limit :\n" );     

                   

                    //Using split method with a dash regex

                    for (String str: str_tel.split("-",2)) {

                       System.out.println(str);

                    }

                 }

}

Output:

Using dot regex for splitting a string example

Similarly, you may use dot (.) as the character where you want to break the given string. Suppose, you have long paragraphs and the requirement is to break the paragraphs into sentences based on full stops. Here is how you may do this:

public class split_demo {

          public static void main(String args[]) {

                

                    String str_split = new String("Sentence 1 in paragraph. Sentence 2 in paragraph. Sentence 3 in paragraph");

                   

                    //with a dot regex

                    for (String str_dot: str_split.split("\\. ")) {

                       System.out.println(str_dot);

                    }

                 }

}

Output:

That means:

A little complex regex for multiple delimiters demo

In some scenarios, you may need to split a string for multiple delimiters.

For example, break the string with space, commas, hyphens, or other characters in one call.

As such, the Java split method performs split based on a given regular expression, so you may create such a regex that may accommodate all.

See this example where I will split the string with space, comma, dot, and dash by using regex:

public class split_demo {

       public static void main (String[] args)

    {

              String str_split="split method.It is cool - (Hello-World)";

        for (String str_complex : str_split.split("\\s|,|\\.|-")) {

            System.out.println(str_complex);

        }

    }

}

The output of the above code:

Similarly, you may create your own regex as per the requirement of the project.