protected List parseElements(String svalue) {

        // Validate the passed argument
        if (svalue == null) {
            throw new NullPointerException();
        }

        // Trim any matching '{' and '}' delimiters
        svalue = svalue.trim();
        if (svalue.startsWith("{") && svalue.endsWith("}")) {
            svalue = svalue.substring(1, svalue.length() - 1);
        }

        try {

            // Set up a StreamTokenizer on the characters in this String
            StreamTokenizer st =
                new StreamTokenizer(new StringReader(svalue));
            st.whitespaceChars(',',','); // Commas are delimiters
            st.ordinaryChars('0', '9');  // Needed to turn off numeric flag
            st.ordinaryChars('.', '.');
            st.ordinaryChars('-', '-');
            st.wordChars('0', '9');      // Needed to make part of tokens
            st.wordChars('.', '.');
            st.wordChars('-', '-');

            // Split comma-delimited tokens into a List
            ArrayList list = new ArrayList();
            while (true) {
                int ttype = st.nextToken();
                if ((ttype == StreamTokenizer.TT_WORD) ||
                    (ttype > 0)) {
                    list.add(st.sval);
                } else if (ttype == StreamTokenizer.TT_EOF) {
                    break;
                } else {
                    throw new ConversionException
                        ("Encountered token of type " + ttype);
                }
            }

            // Return the completed list
            return (list);

        } catch (IOException e) {

            throw new ConversionException(e);

        }



    }