Best way to code this, string to map conversion in Groovy

Question

I have a string like

def data = \"session=234567893egshdjchasd&userId=12345673456&timeOut=1800000\"

I want to convert it to a map

Answer 1

If you're looking for efficient, regular expressions are where it's at:

def data = "session=234567893egshdjchasd&userId=12345673456&timeOut=1800000"
def map = [:]
data.findAll(/([^&=]+)=([^&]+)/) { full, name, value ->  map[name] = value }

println map

prints:

[session:234567893egshdjchasd, userId:12345673456, timeOut:1800000]

If you're not familiar with regular expressions, it might look a little foreign, but it's really not that complicate. It just has two (groups), the first group is any character but a "&" or a "=". The second group is any character besides a "=". The capture groups are on either side of a "=".

Answer 2

I don't know think this is would run any faster, but it does suggest itself in terms of syntactic parsimony:

def data = 'session=234567893egshdjchasd&userId=12345673456&timeOut=1800000'
def result = data.split('&').inject([:]) { map, token -> 
    //Split at "=" and return map with trimmed values
    token.split('=').with { 
        map[it[0].trim()] = it[1].trim() 
    }
    map 
}

Personally, I like Don's answer for readability and maintainability, but depending on context, this may be appropriate.

Edit: This is actually a reformatted one-liner.