[Basic] splitting a string

[FALL3N]

ok, I'm pretty embarrassed to be posting such a simple question, I feel like I've done this in much harder applications like a million times...

String[] wordVar = text.split("$");

Why does the above code not split the String 'text' at each occurrence of a "$"? Is the "$" a special character or something? when I execute this code and then get text.length; it returns 1 regardless of the number of "$"s..

What am I doing wrong?

[JamesCherrill]

Yes, the param for split is Regex, and $ is a special char in regular expressions. You have to escape it with a backslash to use it as a literal $

[FALL3N]

But this does not work either...

String[] text = word.split("\$");

should I declare the "\$" as part of a Pattern? Or a Matcher? or use ' instead of "? I know this started out ridiculous, and just keeps getting more ridiculous, but I am really getting thrown by this.

[DavidKroukamp]

But this does not work either...

String[] text = word.split("\$");

should I declare the "\$" as part of a Pattern? Or a Matcher? or use ' instead of "? I know this started out ridiculous, and just keeps getting more ridiculous, but I am really getting thrown by this.

[EDIT] See below post

[DavidKroukamp]

But this does not work either...

String[] text = word.split("\$");

should I declare the "\$" as part of a Pattern? Or a Matcher? or use ' instead of "? I know this started out ridiculous, and just keeps getting more ridiculous, but I am really getting thrown by this.

your biggest problem might be you are using one back slash:

String h="re$rt$yy";
        String[] a=h.split("\\$");
        for(int i=0;i<a.length;i++) {
        System.out.println(a[i]);
    }

[JamesCherrill]

That's right. It's messy, but $ is a special char in a RegEx and needs to be escaped with a \. But \ is a special char in Java string literal, and needs to be escaped with a second \. So to get a literal $ in a RegEx you need the Java string literal "\\$"

[FALL3N]

hmm.. That's why it was not working right... thanks guys!