public Map<String,String> parse(final String str,char separator){
  if (str == null) {
    return new HashMap<String,String>();
  }
  return parse(str.toCharArray(),separator);
}

public Map < String , String > parse ( final String str , char separator ) { if ( str == null ) { return new HashMap < String , String > ( ) ; } return parse ( str . toCharArray ( ) , separator ) ; }
extracts a map of name / value pairs from the given string . names are expected to be unique .
