how to split a string on certain conditions [closed]

Question

I have a following string

books/eh/grayL88/WilliamsMC88:::M. Howard Williams::P. A. Massey::Jim A. Crammond:::Benchmarking Prolog for Database Applications.

How should i use or in other words what to use so that at last i may get

M. Howard Williams -- Benchmarking Prolog for Database Applications.

P. A. Massey -- Benchmarking Prolog for Database Applications.

Jim A. Crammond -- Benchmarking Prolog for Database Applications.

Thanks

Answer 1

1st Way:

• You can first split your string on the basis of :::. This will give you an array of length 3. You would be interested in the 2nd and the 3rd element of your array.
• Then split the 2nd element of your array on ::. This will give you an array containing each name.

• Iterate over the 2nd array and print each name with the 3rd element of your first array.

  String str = "books/eh/grayL88/WilliamsMC88:::M. Howard Williams::" + 
               "P. A. Massey::Jim A. Crammond:::Benchmarking Prolog for " + 
               "Database Applications.";
  
  String[] arr = str.split(":::");
  String[] innerArr = arr[1].split("::");
  
  for (String name: innerArr) {
      System.out.println(name + " -- " + arr[2]);
  }
  

OUTPUT: -

M. Howard Williams -- Benchmarking Prolog for Database Applications.
P. A. Massey -- Benchmarking Prolog for Database Applications.
Jim A.Crammond -- Benchmarking Prolog for Database Applications.

---

2nd Way:

Or, you can split on :::?. This will split on :: or :::, that will get each individual elements in your first array only (Will work only for 3 names. For more, you should better use the first one)

    String[] arr = str.split(":::?");

    System.out.println(arr[1] + " - " + arr[4]);
    System.out.println(arr[2] + " - " + arr[4]);
    System.out.println(arr[3] + " - " + arr[4]);

OUTPUT: -

M. Howard Williams - Benchmarking Prolog for Database Applications.
P. A. Massey - Benchmarking Prolog for Database Applications.
Jim A. Crammond - Benchmarking Prolog for Database Applications.

Answer 2

You could try something like this:

String s = "books/eh/grayL88/WilliamsMC88:::M. Howard Williams::P. A. Massey::Jim A. Crammond:::Benchmarking Prolog for Database Applications.";

String split[] = s.split(":::");
String end = split[split.length - 1];

String[] names = split[1].split("::");

for (String name : names)
    System.out.println(name + " -- " + end);

---

Output:

M. Howard Williams -- Benchmarking Prolog for Database Applications.
P. A. Massey -- Benchmarking Prolog for Database Applications.
Jim A. Crammond -- Benchmarking Prolog for Database Applications.

Answer 3

Try something along the lines of: (Pseudo code...)

myString.remove("(.*/)+[^:]*:{3}");
lastString = myString.split(":::").takeLast();
array names = myString.split("([^:]*)+");
result = "";

for (i=0;i<name.size();result+=names[i++]+" -- "+lastString+"\n");

// do whatever with "result"...

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