Example: You are parsing a CSV row into a String[] and the last column(s) are empty but you want the array length to be the same as the CSV column count so as to avoid java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException being thrown.
String line = "A,B,C,D,E";

String[] parts = line.split(',');

String first = parts[0];  // contains "A"
String second = parts[1]; // contains "B"
String third = parts[2];  // contains "C"
String fourth = parts[3]; // contains "D"
String fifth = parts[4];  // contains "E"
But
String line = "A,B,C,D,";

String[] parts = line.split(',');

String first = parts[0];  // contains "A"
String second = parts[1]; // contains "B"
String third = parts[2];  // contains "C"
String fourth = parts[3]; // contains "D"
String fifth = parts[4];  // throws java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
The solution is to use the two parameter form of split() with a negative limit:
String line = "A,B,C,D,";

/* Javadoc for String.split(String regex, int limit)
* The limit parameter controls the number of times the
* pattern is applied and therefore affects the length of the resulting
* array.  If the limit n is greater than zero then the pattern
* will be applied at most n - 1 times, the array's
* length will be no greater than n, and the array's last entry
* will contain all input beyond the last matched delimiter.  If n
* is non-positive then the pattern will be applied as many times as
* possible and the array can have any length.  If n is zero then
* the pattern will be applied as many times as possible, the array can
* have any length, and trailing empty strings will be discarded.
*/
String[] parts = line.split(',', -1); // second parameter < 0 prevents stripping trailing empty matches

String first = parts[0];  // contains "A"
String second = parts[1]; // contains "B"
String third = parts[2];  // contains "C"
String fourth = parts[3]; // contains "D"
String fifth = parts[4];  // contains null