/** * Created by Oscar on 3/8/17. */ public class Test { public static void main(String[] args) { String incomingMessage = "!sysmsg jid@talk.com otherjid@talk.com All the rest of the text here"; String[] arr = incomingMessage.split("\\s+"); if (arr.length < 4) { System.out.println("not a sysmsg"); return; } String iWantThisText = arr[1]; String thisText = arr[2]; String andThisText = incomingMessage.substring(incomingMessage.indexOf(thisText) + thisText.length() + 1); System.out.println(iWantThisText + "\n" + thisText + "\n" + andThisText); } }