How to split a comma-separated string?

Well, you want to split, right?

String animals = "dog, cat, bear, elephant, giraffe";

String[] animalsArray = animals.split(",");

If you want to additionally get rid of whitespaces around items:

String[] animalsArray = animals.split("\\s*,\\s*");

You could do this:

String str = "...";
List<String> elephantList = Arrays.asList(str.split(","));

Basically the .split() method will split the string according to (in this case) delimiter you are passing and will return an array of strings.

However, you seem to be after a List of Strings rather than an array, so the array must be turned into a list by using the Arrays.asList() utility. Just as an FYI you could also do something like so:

String str = "...";
ArrayList<String> elephantList = new ArrayList<>(Arrays.asList(str.split(","));

But it is usually better practice to program to an interface rather than to an actual concrete implementation, so I would recommend the 1st option.