split a string without adjacent characters that matched regex in java

Question

i am first to this site. I want to split a string without the characters that matched in regex of string split method in java.

The string for splitting is (for eg.) : "conditional&&operator and ampersand&Symbol."
My regex-expression for spit is : "[^\\&]\\&[^\\&]"
My expectation is : [conditional&&operator and ampersand, Symbol]
But, the output is : [conditional&&operator and *ampersan, ymbol*]

The code i used is:

String s = "conditional&&operator and ampersand&Symbol.";     
String[] sarr = s.split("[^\\&]\\&[^\\&]");     
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(sarr));     

So, please tell me what regex i should use to get the expected output, that is without the additional characters removed.

Answer 1

Your question is very similar to this one.

What you need is a negative look-behind. In your case, you could use something like:

String s = "conditional&&operator and ampersand&Symbol.";
String[] sarr = s.split("(?<!&)&(?!&)");
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(sarr));
// output: [conditional&&operator and ampersand, Symbol.]