parser of list of objects (Integers and other lists of objects) from plain text, following the "[" character as opener of a list
public List<Object> parse(String input){ List<Object> parsed = new ArrayList<>(); String parser = ""; for (char c : input.toCharArray()){ if (c == '['){ parser += c; continue; } if (c == ']'){ if (parser.length() > 1) parsed.add(parse(parser)); else parsed.add(Integer.parseInt(parser)); parser = ""; } else parser += c; } return parsed; }