split a string by any symbol

Question

What is the regex that I should pass with String.split() in order to split the string by any symbol?

Now, by any symbol I mean any of the following:

`~`, `!`, `@`, `#`, ...

Basically any non-letter and non-digit printable character.

Answer 1

You should use a non word i.e \W

\W is inverse of \w

\W is similar to [^a-zA-Z0-9_] and so would match any non-word character except _

OR

you can simply use [^a-zA-Z0-9]

Answer 2

You can try using this: -

str.split("[^a-zA-Z0-9]");

This will not include an underscore.

\W is equivalent to: - "[a-zA-Z0-9_]"

Answer 3

You could either be specific like Spring.split("[~!@$]") or list the values you do not want to split upon Spring.split("[^\\w]")

Answer 4

You may want to use \W or ^\w. You may find more details here: Regex: Character classes

    String str = "a@v$d!e";
    String[] splitted = str.split("\\W");
    System.out.println(splitted.length); //<--print 4

or

    String str = "a@v$d!e";
    String[] splitted = str.split("[^\\w]");
    System.out.println(splitted.length); //<--print 4