Thread: Splitting string in Java error

Hello I am currently trying to split the string "EAM\test" between the \ part. I have gotten the code to work if the \ was a -. But I can't see why the error is occuring

I have tried

String test = "EAM-testing";
String[] parts = test.split("-");
System.out.println("parts[0] = " + parts[0]);
System.out.println("parts[1] = " + parts[1]);
String test1 = "EAM\testing";
String[] parts1= test1.split("\\");
System.out.println("parts1[0] = " + parts1[0]);
System.out.println("parts1[1] = " + parts1[1]);

The output I see is:
parts[0] = EAM
parts[1] = testing
java.util.regex.PatternSyntaxException: Unexpected internal error near index 1
\
^
at java.util.regex.Pattern.error(Unknown Source)
at java.util.regex.Pattern.compile(Unknown Source)
at java.util.regex.Pattern.<init>(Unknown Source)
at java.util.regex.Pattern.compile(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.String.split(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.String.split(Unknown Source)

The error occurs at line: String[] parts1= test1.split("\\");

Because the split method works with regular expressions. The String "\" is not a valid regular expression because the "\" is the escape character for regular expressions in java.
Try to use "\\" instead.

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Please post your code correctly per the above link.

The issue is also that the \t in your test1 String object is becoming a tab. As Cornix said, .split() uses a regular expression as a parameter, so it expects something after the escaped backslash. In this case, using "\\s" should work (in regex, \s matches whitespace characters), as it will split the tab created in your String and give you the following output:
parts1[0] = EAM
parts1[1] = esting