Java: splitting by comma and ignoring commas in tag

Question

I would like to split a string by comma, but commas inside <p></p> should be ignored.

For example if I have the below String

" Test1, test2, <p> test3, test4, test5, </p> , test6, test7"

I need the result to be :

Test1
Test2
<p> test3, test4, test5, </p>
test6 
test7

Using special character how can I achieve this ?

Possible duplicate of [Java: splitting a comma-separated string but ignoring commas in quotes](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1757065/java-splitting-a-comma-separated-string-but-ignoring-commas-in-quotes) — Tom, May 01 '17 at 14:41

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 01 '17 at 14:42

1

You can split your String with this regex ,(?![^<p>]*</p>):

String str = "Test1, test2, <p> test3, test4, test5, </p> , test6, test7";
String spl[] = str.split(",(?![^<p>]*</p>)");

Output

Test1
test2
<p> test3, test4, test5, </p>
test6
test7

Demo here:

Rextester

edited May 01 '17 at 14:42

Tim Biegeleisen

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answered May 01 '17 at 14:41

YCF_L

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1

I missed the splitting part :-) – Tim Biegeleisen May 01 '17 at 14:43
`[^
]` looks fishy. This is "anything that's not '>', '
– May 01 '17 at 14:54
@Arkadiy i think there are no way how you can represent
except this way did you have any idea?
– YCF_L May 01 '17 at 15:06
errm... `
`? Some sort of nested negative lookahead? I am not the one answering :)
– May 01 '17 at 15:21
Here is what I came up with: `String spl[] = input.split("\\s*,\\s*(
.*
)?\\s*");` . Of course, it does not address the issue of nested tags, or capital `
` or `
`. Please do not parse HTML with regex. – May 01 '17 at 15:36
@Arkadiy it show me a wrong output check this https://ideone.com/ucYSql – YCF_L May 01 '17 at 15:40
1

Sure, it shows empty line because `,` is followed by another `,` , so it sees two separators next to each other. I'll leave fixing this as an exercise to teh reader. – May 01 '17 at 15:51

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 01 '17 at 14:52

You can first split using "p>": String[] temp = input.split("p>");

You will have three elements in temp in your example:

"Test1, test2, <"
"p> test3, test4, test5,
"p> , test6, test7"

Now in all strings in temp, replace '<', 'p>' and '

"Test1, test2,"
"p> test3, test4, test5,"
", test6, test7"

Finally, split each line using ',' again.
Apart from some (easily removable) empty strings, it should work

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 01 '17 at 15:30

This should work, it's not the most optimal, sorry, but off the top of my head.

public static void main(String args[]) {
    String x = " Test1, test2, <p> test3, test4, test5, </p> , test6, test7";
    String newX[];
    newX = x.split(",");
    String newString = "";
    int j = 0;
    int count = 0;
    for(int i = 0; i < newX.length; i ++) {
        if(newX[i].contains("<p>")) {
            count ++;
            j=i;
            while(!newX[i].contains("</p>")) {
                newString = newString + "," + newX[i];
                newX[i] = "";
                i++;
            }
            newString = newString + "," + newX[i];
            newX[i] = "";
            newX[j] = newString;
            newX[j] = newX[j].replaceFirst(",", "");
        }
        else
            count++;
    }
    String output[] = new String[count];

    j = 0;
    for(int i = 0; i < newX.length; i++) {
        if(newX[i] != "" && j < count) {
            output[j] =  newX[i];
            System.out.println(output[j]);
            j++;
        }
    }
}

Java: splitting by comma and ignoring commas in tag

3 Answers3

Rextester