String Tokenizer : split string by comma and ignore comma in double quotes

Question

I have a string like below -

value1, value2, value3, value4, \"value5, 1234\", value6, value7, \"value8\", value9, \"value10, 123.23\"

Answer 1

You just need one line and the right regex:

String[] values = input.replaceAll("^\"", "").split("\"?(,|$)(?=(([^\"]*\"){2})*[^\"]*$) *\"?");

This also neatly trims off the wrapping double quotes for you too, including the final quote!

Note: Interesting edge case when the first term is quoted required an extra step of trimming the leading quote using replaceAll().

Here's some test code:

String input= "\"value1, value2\", value3, value4, \"value5, 1234\", " +
    "value6, value7, \"value8\", value9, \"value10, 123.23\"";
String[] values = input.replaceAll("^\"", "").split("\"?(,|$)(?=(([^\"]*\"){2})*[^\"]*$) *\"?");
for (String s : values)
System.out.println(s);

Output:

value1, value2
value3
value4
value5, 1234
value6
value7
value8
value9
value10, 123.23