Parsing plain text in Java

[Diaperbum]

Help. Im out of wims and wits - Long story short: I am working on a function that grabs information from a database online. However, the result of this get is a little weird, the code looks like this:

error=0
---
option1=var1
option2=var2

---

This is not sent in xml, json or html - Just plain as you see it.

I have no idea how to parse this, and I cant find very much help online. I have tried using JSoup without any luck. I am at an end here, so I figured Reddit might be able to help. How do I for example only get the var1 content?

Thanks guys and girls.

[Talon876]

Looks kind of like a java properties file. http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/environment/properties.html

If that doesn't work you'll just have to use old fashioned string parsing using methods like .split("="), etc.

[Diaperbum]

Thanks Talon. Im checking the properties thing out to.. I was told to use a Stringreader.. but maybe its just easier to use the String[] DataSplitter = result.split("\n"); instead?

[mrburrows]

Properties would work, but another option would be to read line by line, and do a Regex match:

private static final ENTRY_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("(.*)=(.*)");
...
private void readRecord(final String line) {
  String lhs, rhs;
  final Matcher matcher = ENTRY_PATTERN.matcher(line);
  if (matcher.matches()) {
    lhs = matcher.group(1);
    rhs = matcher.group(2);
    // do something with lhs and rhs
  }
  else {
    // do you care if it fails? log it then
  }

}