Java - Using multiple delimiters in a scanner

R.B. picture R.B. · Jun 5, 2011 · Viewed 30.5k times · Source

I'm using a scanner to take input and, hopefully, split it into chunks. I want it to split it up using whole word delimiters. So right now I have:

    Scanner scanner = new Scanner("1 imported bottle of perfume at 27.99");
    scanner.useDelimiter("\\sdelimitOne\\s");

So with input "word word delimitOne word word delimitTwo word word" I get output:

word word
word word delimitTwo word word

I was hoping

    scanner.useDelimiter("\\sdelimitOne\\s\\sdelimitTwo\\s");

might work, but alas not.

How do I go about achieving the following output:

word word
word word
word word

?

Answer

Rangi Lin picture Rangi Lin · Jun 5, 2011

From wikipedia :

| : The choice (aka alternation or set union) operator matches either the expression before or the expression after the operator. For example, abc|def matches "abc" or "def".

so, scanner.useDelimiter("\\sdelimitOne\\s|\\sdelimitTwo\\s"); is what you need.