Split strings keeping all trailing empty elements

Question

I am relatively new to java programming. How would you split following lines of Strings separated by semicolons?

String; String; String; String, String; String;;         


        

Answer 1

The issue is the String.Split does not keep the trailing empty elements:

Trailing empty strings are therefore not included in the resulting array.

To include them, use -1 as the second argument (see demo):

String s  = "String; String; String; String, String; String;;String;";
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(s.split(";", -1)));

See this Java reference:

public String[] split(String regex, int limit)
The limit parameter controls the number of times the pattern is applied and therefore affects the length of the resulting array... If n is non-positive then the pattern will be applied as many times as possible and the array can have any length. If n is zero then the pattern will be applied as many times as possible, the array can have any length, and trailing empty strings will be discarded.