Parsing multiple delimiters

Question

I have to input and parse the contents of a .txt file. I can do this using Scanner class and defining a delimiter (e.g. scanner.useDelimiter(",");)
However, my txt file has multiple delimiters. For example, this is a snippet of the file:
Question: Question text goes here Location: Chicago, IL School: Unit 5 Grade: 8 Question: Question 2 text goes here Location: Inglewood, CA School: Ben Franklin Elementary Grade: 4
So, basically, there are numerous delimiters (Question:, Location: School:, etc) and nothing that indicates the start of a new question. Note, I can't use : as a delimiter as it often appears in the text as a legitimate character
Can someone inform me on the best way to parse using multiple delimiters so it reads:
Question: Question Text
Location: Chicago, IL
School:
Grade: 8
Question: Question Text
Location: Inglewood, CA
School:
Grade: 4
thank you

Answer 1

Or can use this code, but it has many limitations: the delimiters must start with uppercase (no other word must be uppercase)->instead of this you can use a regexp; also the result will contain all entries for the respective delimiter, delimited with ',' (comma), you can use other delimiter and then use that to split it if you want them separated.
This is very poor quality code; any improvements and tips are more welcomed from experienced users
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;
public class test
public static void main(String[] args)
try {
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(new File("c:\\file.txt";)));
String questions=processLine(br.readLine(), "Question:");
System.out.println(questions);
} catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
System.out.println(ex.getMessage());
catch (IOException ex) {
System.out.println(ex.getMessage());
public static String processLine(String line, String delimiter)
String processLine="";
if(line.contains(delimiter))
String delimiterIncrement=line;
while(delimiterIncrement.contains(delimiter))
int pos=delimiterIncrement.indexOf(delimiter);
if(pos!=-1)
int end=getFirstUpper(delimiterIncrement);
if(pos>end)
delimiterIncrement=delimiterIncrement.substring(pos);
end=getFirstUpper(delimiterIncrement);
processLine=processLine+delimiterIncrement.substring(delimiter.length()+1, end)+",";
delimiterIncrement=delimiterIncrement.substring(end+1);
else
processLine=processLine+delimiterIncrement.substring(pos+delimiter.length()+1, end)+",";
delimiterIncrement=delimiterIncrement.substring(end+1);
else
break;
return processLine;
public static int getFirstUpper(String myString)
int first=1000000;
myString=myString.substring(1);
for(char c:myString.toCharArray())
if(Character.isUpperCase(c))
first=myString.indexOf(c);
break;
return first;
}Or... you can use StringTokenizer as instructed on the other forum :))) That's the advantage of Java: knowledge of already built-in classes that improve and ease your work...
edit: so this code does exactly what you want (printout) you must first adapt it to your specific needs... but hopefully helps a bit...
Edited by: don1983p on Apr 19, 2009 12:11 AM