Java .split(“|”) not working

I just ran into the problem that the split method for strings wouldn’t work with character “|” as an argument. It somehow separates each character in the string.

Code:

String[] res = "12345|6".split("|");
Log.d("split", Arrays.toString(res));

Output:

split﹕ [, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, |, 6]

Answer

Use escape character before | like below:

String[] res = "12345|6".split("\|");

Similar “escape character logic” is required, when you are dealing/splitting with any of the below special characters (used by Regular Expression):

• OR sign (|)
• question mark (?)
• asterisk (*)
• plus sign (+)
• backslash ()
• period (.)
• caret (^)
• square brackets ([ and ])
• dollar sign ($)
• ampersand (&)