question: static String [ ] splitLine ( final String line ) { final int ix0 = line . indexOf ( '#' ) ; final int ix = ix0 == - 1 ? line . length ( ) : ix0 ; final String lessComment = line . substring ( 0 , ix ) ; if ( lessComment . matches ( "^\\s*$" ) ) { return null ; } return lessComment . split ( "\\s+" ) ; }
target:  Check for comments, trim white space. Return null if nothing left after that. Otherwise split on tabs and return the array.