What class is the split () method a member of?

The string split() method breaks a given string around matches of the given regular expression. After splitting against the given regular expression, this method returns a string array.

Input String: 016-78967
Regular Expression: - 
Output : {"016", "78967"}

Following are the two variants of the split() method in Java: 

1. Public String [] split ( String regex, int limit)

Parameters:

• regex – a delimiting regular expression
• Limit – the resulting threshold

Returns: An array of strings is computed by splitting the given string.

Exception Thrown: PatternSyntaxException – if the provided regular expression’s syntax is invalid.  

The limit parameter can have 3 values: 

• limit > 0 – If this is the case, then the pattern will be applied at most limit-1 times, the resulting array’s length will not be more than n, and the resulting array’s last entry will contain all input beyond the last matched pattern.
• limit < 0 – In this case, the pattern will be applied as many times as possible, and the resulting array can be of any size.
• limit = 0 – In this case, the pattern will be applied as many times as possible, the resulting array can be of any size, and trailing empty strings will be discarded.

Here’s how it works:
 
Let the string that is to be split is – geekss@for@geekss

Following are the Java example codes to demonstrate the working of split()
 
Example 1:

Java

public class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        String str = "geekss@for@geekss";

        String[] arrOfStr = str.split("@", 2);

        for (String a : arrOfStr)

            System.out.println(a);

    }

}

Example 2:  

Java

public class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        String str = "geekss@for@geekss";

        String[] arrOfStr = str.split("@", 5);

        for (String a : arrOfStr)

            System.out.println(a);

    }

}

Example 3:  

Java

public class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        String str = "geekss@for@geekss";

        String[] arrOfStr = str.split("@", -2);

        for (String a : arrOfStr)

            System.out.println(a);

    }

}

Example 4:  

Java

public class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        String str = "geekss@for@geekss";

        String[] arrOfStr = str.split("s", 5);

        for (String a : arrOfStr)

            System.out.println(a);

    }

}

Example 5:  

Java

public class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        String str = "geekss@for@geekss";

        String[] arrOfStr = str.split("s", -2);

        for (String a : arrOfStr)

            System.out.println(a);

    }

}

Example 6:  

Java

public class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        String str = "geekss@for@geekss";

        String[] arrOfStr = str.split("s", 0);

        for (String a : arrOfStr)

            System.out.println(a);

    }

}

2. public String[] split(String regex)

This variant of the split method takes a regular expression as a parameter and breaks the given string around matches of this regular expression regex. Here, by default limit is 0.
 

Parameters: regex – a delimiting regular expression

Returns: An array of strings is computed by splitting the given string.

Exception Thrown: PatternSyntaxException – if the provided regular expression’s syntax is invalid.  

Here are some working example codes:
 
Example 1:

Java

public class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        String str = "GeeksforGeeks:A Computer Science Portal";

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

        for (String a : arrOfStr)

            System.out.println(a);

    }

}

Output

GeeksforGeeks
A Computer Science Portal

Example 2:

Java

public class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        String str = "GeeksforGeeksforStudents";

        String[] arrOfStr = str.split("for");

        for (String a : arrOfStr)

            System.out.println(a);

    }

}

Output

Geeks
Geeks
Students

It can be seen in the above example that the pattern/regular expression “for” is applied twice (because “for” is present two times in the string to be split)

Example 3:  

Java

public class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        String str = "Geeks for Geeks";

        String[] arrOfStr = str.split(" ");

        for (String a : arrOfStr)

            System.out.println(a);

    }

}

Example 4:

Java

public class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        String str = "Geeks.for.Geeks";

        String[] arrOfStr = str.split("[.]");  

        for (String a : arrOfStr)

            System.out.println(a);

    }

}

 Example 5: 

Java

public class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        String str = "Geekssss";

        String[] arrOfStr = str.split("s");

        for (String a : arrOfStr)

            System.out.println(a);

    }

}

In the above example that trailing empty strings are not included in the resulting array arrOfStr.
  
Example 6:  

Java

public class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        String str = "GeeksforforGeeksfor   ";

        String[] arrOfStr = str.split("for");

        for (String a : arrOfStr)

            System.out.println(a);

    }

}

In the above example, the trailing spaces (hence not empty string) become a string in the resulting array arrOfStr.
 
Example 7:  

Java

public class GFG {

    public static void main(String args[])

    {

        String str = "word1, word2 word3@word4?word5.word6";

        String[] arrOfStr = str.split("[, ?.@]+");

        for (String a : arrOfStr)

            System.out.println(a);

    }

}

Output

word1
word2
word3
word4
word5
word6

In the above example, words are separated whenever either of the characters specified in the set is encountered.

This article is contributed by Vaibhav Bajpai. If you like GeeksforGeeks and would like to contribute, you can also write an article using write.geeksforgeeks.org or mail your article to . See your article appearing on the GeeksforGeeks main page and help other Geeks.

Please write comments if you find anything incorrect or if you want to share more information about the topic discussed above.

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