How do I get what's inbetween “ ” in a user inputted String? Java

Question

I\'d like to retrieve whatever is in quotes that someone enters as a string, i\'m assuming it\'s substring that I need but i\'m not sure how.

When the user inputs a stri

Answer 1

I'm not sure if this quite what you are looking for, but it will strip down the quoted parts in steps...

String quote = "I say: \"I have something to say, \"It's better to burn out then fade away\"\" outloud...";

if (quote.contains("\"")) {

    while (quote.contains("\"")) {
        int startIndex = quote.indexOf("\"");
        int endIndex = quote.lastIndexOf("\"");
        quote = quote.substring(startIndex + 1, endIndex);
        System.out.println(quote);
    }

}

Which outputs...

I have something to say, "It's better to burn out then fade away"
It's better to burn out then fade away

Updated

I don't know if this is cheating or not...

String quote = "I say: \"I have something to say, \"It's better to burn out then fade away\"\" outloud...\"Just in case you don't believe me\"";

String[] split = quote.split("\"");
for (String value : split) {
    System.out.println(value);
}

Which outputs...

I say: 
I have something to say, 
It's better to burn out then fade away

 outloud...
Just in case you don't believe me

Updated

Okay, fake String#split

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(quote.length());
for (int index = 0; index < quote.length(); index++) {
    if (quote.charAt(index) == '"') {
        System.out.println(sb);
        sb.delete(0, sb.length());
    } else {
        sb.append(quote.charAt(index));
    }
}

Updated

Okay, this is basically fake split with options...

String quote = "blah blah 123 \"hello\" 234 \"world\"";

boolean quoteOpen = false;
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(quote.length());
for (int index = 0; index < quote.length(); index++) {
    if (quote.charAt(index) == '"') {
        if (quoteOpen) {
            System.out.println("Quote: [" + sb.toString() + "]");
            quoteOpen = false;
            sb.delete(0, sb.length());
        } else {
            System.out.println("Text: [" + sb.toString() + "]");
            sb.delete(0, sb.length());
            quoteOpen = true;
        }
    } else {
        sb.append(quote.charAt(index));
    }
}
if (sb.length() > 0) {
    if (quoteOpen) {
        System.out.println("Quote: [" + sb.toString() + "]");
    } else {
        System.out.println("Text: [" + sb.toString() + "]");
    }
}

Which generates...

Text: [blah blah 123 ]
Quote: [hello]
Text: [ 234 ]
Quote: [world]

Know, I don't know how you are storing the results. I would be tempted to create some basic classes which were capable of storing the String results and add them to a List so I could maintain the order and maybe use a flag of some kind to determine what type they are...