public static Collection<String> getStringCollection(String str){
    List<String> values = new ArrayList<String>();
    if (str == null) {
      return values;
    }
    StringTokenizer tokenizer = new StringTokenizer (str,",");
    values = new ArrayList<String>();
    while (tokenizer.hasMoreTokens()) {
      values.add(tokenizer.nextToken());
    }
    return values;
  }
Returns a collection of strings.
@param str comma separated string values
@return an <code>ArrayList</code> of string values
common/src/java/org/apache/hive/common/util/HiveStringUtils.java