public static String[] decodeArray(String s) {
    if (s == null)
      return null;

    String[] escaped = StringUtils.split(s);
    String[] plain = new String[escaped.length];

    for (int i = 0; i < escaped.length; ++i)
      plain[i] = StringUtils.unEscapeString(escaped[i]);

    return plain;
  }
Take an encode strings and decode it into an array of strings.
hcatalog/webhcat/svr/src/main/java/org/apache/hive/hcatalog/templeton/tool/TempletonUtils.java