How to split a comma separated String while ignoring escaped commas?

Question

I need to write a extended version of the StringUtils.commaDelimitedListToStringArray function which gets an additional parameter: the escape char.

so calling my:

Answer 1

Try:

String array[] = str.split("(?

Basically this is saying split on a comma, except where that comma is preceded by two backslashes. This is called a negative lookbehind zero-width assertion.