QByteArray.split() returning QList with empty first element

[FreddyKay]

Hey Guys,

I got a QByteArray containing some data. I distinguish different kinds of data via key characters which I prepend with a '&' character. Currently the data QByteArray only contians something like this: data = "&t02.04.2014".



void foo(QByteArray data){

QList<QByteArray> cmdList = data.split('&');

if(cmdList.size() != data.count('&')) dispError("Command List size != number of '&'");
//At this point the cmdList contains 2 elments where the first one is empty (presuming the data array is like noted above.

//do fancy stuff with the data
}


I don't quite understand why there are two elments in the QList as I am only expecting one.

[Lesiok]

As a special character is treated as a marker for the end of the element. String "&&&aaa" gives You 4 elements.

[wysota]

In other words "&" separates items. Therefore by definition the number of items in the array equals to number of separators + 1. Since you have one occurence of the separator, you have two items (no separators would yield one item -- the whole input string).

[FreddyKay]

right. Gotcha. Thank you!

[ChrisW67]

Take a look at the other split() arguments if you want to suppress empty sections.

[Lesiok]

Take a look at the other split() arguments if you want to suppress empty sections.

QByteArray::split don't have other arguments, QString::split has them.

[wysota]

Having read the thread again I think the OP should use regular expressions rather than split.

[FreddyKay]

Having read the thread again I think the OP should use regular expressions rather than split.

And why is that?

[wysota]

Because you want to "distinguish" things rather than split columns. At least that's what I understood.

[FreddyKay]

Because you want to "distinguish" things rather than split columns. At least that's what I understood.

What I ultimatelly will have will be Array like this: [&t25.01.2015&satFancy Name//6000//Blablubb//something//42&antRunning//0//Illuminati&gs6300//2655].

Each of the & indicates that the following stuff represents some values for objects that are specified by th name that follows '&'. The '//' seperate different values. Would it still be possible to use Regular Expressions? From first glance I figured split was what I wanted but you can teach me better ;)

[wysota]

Yes, you can still use regular expressions.