public static String[] getStrings(String str){
    Collection<String> values = getStringCollection(str);
    if(values.size() == 0) {
      return null;
    }
    return values.toArray(new String[values.size()]);
  }
Returns an arraylist of strings.
@param str the comma separated string values
@return the arraylist of the comma separated string values
common/src/java/org/apache/hive/common/util/HiveStringUtils.java