How to Split a Java String with a Separator and Retain Empty Values

How can I correctly split a Java string with a separator while keeping the empty values in the result?

String data = "5|6|7||8|9||";
String[] split = data.split("\|");
System.out.println(split.length);

When using the `String.split()` method in Java, the default behavior is to discard trailing empty strings unless specified otherwise. In cases where you need to retain these empty values in the resulting array, you must modify the way you use the split method.

String data = "5|6|7||8|9||";
String[] split = data.split("\\|", -1);
for (String s : split) {
    System.out.println(s.isEmpty() ? "EMPTY" : s);
} // Will output 5, 6, 7, EMPTY, 8, 9, EMPTY, EMPTY

Causes

• The default behavior of `String.split()` is to remove trailing empty strings from the resulting array.
• Using `split()` without specifying a limit causes empty strings to be discarded from the end of the array.

Solutions

• Use the overloaded version of `String.split(String regex, int limit)` and set the limit to a negative number, which will include trailing empty strings in the result.
• For your example, you can implement it as follows:
• `String[] split = data.split("\\|", -1); // Using -1 to retain empty strings`

Mistake: Assuming that `split()` will retain all empty strings by default.

Solution: Understand that `split()` removes trailing empty elements unless a limit is provided.

Mistake: Incorrectly escaping the separator in the regex.

Solution: Ensure you properly escape the pipe character, as it is a special regex symbol.