对于JDK1.6，您可以使用内置的Javascript引擎。

import javax.script.ScriptEngineManager;
import javax.script.ScriptEngine;
import javax.script.ScriptException;

public class Test {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws ScriptException {
    ScriptEngineManager mgr = new ScriptEngineManager();
    ScriptEngine engine = mgr.getEngineByName("JavaScript");
    String foo = "40+2";
    System.out.println(engine.eval(foo));
    } 
}

解决这个问题的正确方法是使用词法分析器和解析器。您可以自己编写这些页面的简单版本，或者这些页面还包含指向Java词法分析器和解析器的链接。

创建递归下降解析器是非常好的学习练习。

我想无论你用什么方法做这个都会涉及到很多条件命题。但是对于单个操作，比如在你的例子中，你可以将它限制为4个if语句

String math = "1+4";

if (math.split("+").length == 2) {
    //do calculation
} else if (math.split("-").length == 2) {
    //do calculation
} ...

当你想要处理像“4+5*6”这样的多个操作时，它会变得更加复杂。

如果你试图构建一个计算器，那么我建议分别传递计算的每个部分(每个数字或运算符)，而不是作为一个单一的字符串。

你可以看看Symja框架:

ExprEvaluator util = new ExprEvaluator(); 
IExpr result = util.evaluate("10-40");
System.out.println(result.toString()); // -> "-30" 

请注意，可以计算更复杂的表达式:

// D(...) gives the derivative of the function Sin(x)*Cos(x)
IAST function = D(Times(Sin(x), Cos(x)), x);
IExpr result = util.evaluate(function);
// print: Cos(x)^2-Sin(x)^2

像RHINO或NASHORN这样的外部库可以用来运行javascript。javascript可以计算简单的公式，而不需要对字符串进行分割。如果代码写得好，也不会对性能造成影响。 下面是一个使用RHINO -的示例

public class RhinoApp {
    private String simpleAdd = "(12+13+2-2)*2+(12+13+2-2)*2";

public void runJavaScript() {
    Context jsCx = Context.enter();
    Context.getCurrentContext().setOptimizationLevel(-1);
    ScriptableObject scope = jsCx.initStandardObjects();
    Object result = jsCx.evaluateString(scope, simpleAdd , "formula", 0, null);
    Context.exit();
    System.out.println(result);
}

如果我们要实现它，那么我们可以使用下面的算法

While there are still tokens to be read in, 1.1 Get the next token. 1.2 If the token is: 1.2.1 A number: push it onto the value stack. 1.2.2 A variable: get its value, and push onto the value stack. 1.2.3 A left parenthesis: push it onto the operator stack. 1.2.4 A right parenthesis: 1 While the thing on top of the operator stack is not a left parenthesis, 1 Pop the operator from the operator stack. 2 Pop the value stack twice, getting two operands. 3 Apply the operator to the operands, in the correct order. 4 Push the result onto the value stack. 2 Pop the left parenthesis from the operator stack, and discard it. 1.2.5 An operator (call it thisOp): 1 While the operator stack is not empty, and the top thing on the operator stack has the same or greater precedence as thisOp, 1 Pop the operator from the operator stack. 2 Pop the value stack twice, getting two operands. 3 Apply the operator to the operands, in the correct order. 4 Push the result onto the value stack. 2 Push thisOp onto the operator stack. While the operator stack is not empty, 1 Pop the operator from the operator stack. 2 Pop the value stack twice, getting two operands. 3 Apply the operator to the operands, in the correct order. 4 Push the result onto the value stack. At this point the operator stack should be empty, and the value stack should have only one value in it, which is the final result.