String.split won't let me split with periods

Question

I am trying to do a String.split on a website address using the "." so that I can find the domain name of the website.

However, when I do this:

String href = "www.google.com";
String split[] = href.split(".");
int splitLength = split.length;

It tells me that the splitLength variable is 0. Why is this, and how can I make this work?

If only there was some source of documentation for these method, amiright? — Dave Newton, May 16 '13 at 03:20
lol, that's exactly what I was looking for. I couldn't find before tho. Must have used the wrong search terms — shieldgenerator7, May 16 '13 at 03:34

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited May 16 '13 at 03:25

4

Split uses a regex so do:

String split[] = href.split("\\.");

edited May 16 '13 at 03:25

Paul Bellora

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answered May 16 '13 at 03:19

Jason

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Thanks, I tried that already. It tells me that it's an illegal escape character during compile-time – shieldgenerator7 May 16 '13 at 03:22

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 16 '13 at 03:34

4

Try using this to split the string:

href.split("\\.");

Explanation: split splits on a regex, not on a regular substring. In regexes, . is the metacharacter for 'match any character', which we don't want. So we have to escape it using a backslash \. But \ is also a metacharacter for escaping in Java strings, so we need to escape it twice.

edited May 16 '13 at 03:34

Patashu

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answered May 16 '13 at 03:23

Sameer Anand

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Hey, thanks! I think this one works! – shieldgenerator7 May 16 '13 at 03:29
1

Added an explanation to your answer. – Patashu May 16 '13 at 03:35
You are always welcome to add some good work :) – Sameer Anand May 16 '13 at 06:50

String.split won't let me split with periods

2 Answers2