[java] Parse a URI String into Name-Value Collection

A ready-to-use solution for decoding of URI query part (incl. decoding and multi parameter values)

Comments

I wasn't happy with the code provided by @Pr0gr4mm3r in https://stackoverflow.com/a/13592567/1211082 . The Stream-based solution does not do URLDecoding, the mutable version clumpsy.

Thus I elaborated a solution that

• Can decompose a URI query part into a Map<String, List<Optional<String>>>
• Can handle multiple values for the same parameter name
• Can represent parameters without a value properly (Optional.empty() instead of null)
• Decodes parameter names and values correctly via URLdecode
• Is based on Java 8 Streams
• Is directly usable (see code including imports below)
• Allows for proper error handling (here via turning a checked exception UnsupportedEncodingExceptioninto a runtime exception RuntimeUnsupportedEncodingException that allows interplay with stream. (Wrapping regular function into functions throwing checked exceptions is a pain. And Scala Try is not available in the Java language default.)

Java Code

import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
import java.net.URLDecoder;
import java.util.*;
import static java.util.stream.Collectors.*;

public class URIParameterDecode {
    /**
     * Decode parameters in query part of a URI into a map from parameter name to its parameter values.
     * For parameters that occur multiple times each value is collected.
     * Proper decoding of the parameters is performed.
     * 
     * Example
     *   <pre>a=1&b=2&c=&a=4</pre>
     * is converted into
     *   <pre>{a=[Optional[1], Optional[4]], b=[Optional[2]], c=[Optional.empty]}</pre>
     * @param query the query part of an URI 
     * @return map of parameters names into a list of their values.
     *         
     */
    public static Map<String, List<Optional<String>>> splitQuery(String query) {
        if (query == null || query.isEmpty()) {
            return Collections.emptyMap();
        }

        return Arrays.stream(query.split("&"))
                    .map(p -> splitQueryParameter(p))
                    .collect(groupingBy(e -> e.get0(), // group by parameter name
                            mapping(e -> e.get1(), toList())));// keep parameter values and assemble into list
    }

    public static Pair<String, Optional<String>> splitQueryParameter(String parameter) {
        final String enc = "UTF-8";
        List<String> keyValue = Arrays.stream(parameter.split("="))
                .map(e -> {
                    try {
                        return URLDecoder.decode(e, enc);
                    } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException ex) {
                        throw new RuntimeUnsupportedEncodingException(ex);
                    }
                }).collect(toList());

        if (keyValue.size() == 2) {
            return new Pair(keyValue.get(0), Optional.of(keyValue.get(1)));
        } else {
            return new Pair(keyValue.get(0), Optional.empty());
        }
    }

    /** Runtime exception (instead of checked exception) to denote unsupported enconding */
    public static class RuntimeUnsupportedEncodingException extends RuntimeException {
        public RuntimeUnsupportedEncodingException(Throwable cause) {
            super(cause);
        }
    }

    /**
     * A simple pair of two elements
     * @param <U> first element
     * @param <V> second element
     */
    public static class Pair<U, V> {
        U a;
        V b;

        public Pair(U u, V v) {
            this.a = u;
            this.b = v;
        }

        public U get0() {
            return a;
        }

        public V get1() {
            return b;
        }
    }
}

Scala Code

... and for the sake of completeness I can not resist to provide the solution in Scala that dominates by brevity and beauty

import java.net.URLDecoder

object Decode {
  def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
    val input = "a=1&b=2&c=&a=4";
    println(separate(input))
  }

  def separate(input: String) : Map[String, List[Option[String]]] = {
    case class Parameter(key: String, value: Option[String])

    def separateParameter(parameter: String) : Parameter =
      parameter.split("=")
               .map(e => URLDecoder.decode(e, "UTF-8")) match {
      case Array(key, value) =>  Parameter(key, Some(value))
      case Array(key) => Parameter(key, None)
    }

    input.split("&").toList
      .map(p => separateParameter(p))
      .groupBy(p => p.key)
      .mapValues(vs => vs.map(p => p.value))
  }
}