Code review - parse a query to arrays

Question

I have a query like this "abc=1, def=2, ghi=3" and I need to parse it into arrays like this keys = [abc, def, ghi] and values = [1,2,3]

currently my code is like this

String[] terms = query.split(",");
int termsCount = terms.length;
String[] keys = new String[termsCount];
String[] values = new Object[termsCount];

for(int i=0; i<termsCount; i++)
{
    if(terms[i].contains("="))
    {
        keys[i] = terms[i].split("=")[0];
        values[i] = terms[i].split("=")[1];
    }
}

sometimes, the query might be empty or may not be well formed - I need to take care of that scenarios too.

Am I doing this right? Is there a better way to do this?

Answer 1

The code as it is, is fine. The biggest point is that you should perform the .split("=") only once:

String[] parts = terms[i].split("=");
keys[i] = parts[0];
values[i] = parts[1];

However there is a more general point: Why are you using arrays?

It's very unusual to use arrays at all in Java, especially in this case where you say yourself the input my be not well formed, possibly leaving you with gaps in the array, which you'll need to work around later. You should at least use Lists. Or even more fitting would be a Map (if the "keys" are unique):

String[] terms = query.split(",");
Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<String, String>(terms.length);

for (String term in terms)
{
    if(term.contains("="))
    {
        String[] parts = term.split("=");
        map.add(parts[0], parts[1]);
    }
}

Answer 2

No reason to split twice. Split once and store the result. Also better do an additional check after splitting.

String[] split = terms[ i ].split( "=" );
if ( split.length == 2 )
{
    ...
}

Lastly, I wouldn't use an array to store the results in. As you said, it might not be filled up entirely since some values might be parsed incorrectly. Use a generic List<RetrievedValue> to store the results in. RetrievedValue could be a simple class holding both values.