Split on comma not enclosed by quotes

Question

I am trying to split a string using a regular expression (re.split), but it's been a while since I've been using regular expressions.

The string looks like:

string = '"first, element", second element, third element, "fourth, element", fifth element'

I would like to split the string on each comma unless a substring is enclose by quotes.

The output should look like this:

output = ['"first, element"', 'second element', 'third element', '"fourth, element"', 'fifth element']

Any attempts so far? Also, [related](http://stackoverflow.com/q/21261314/1578604). IMO, it's easier to use match though. — Jerry, Aug 26 '14 at 08:49
Regex is the wrong way to approach this problem. Quoted strings can have escape characters, you should use `shlex.split` instead. — simonzack, Aug 26 '14 at 08:53
Or parse it as csv using the csv module - because that's what it really is. — slebetman, Aug 26 '14 at 08:54
See also [How do I split a line by commas but ignore commas within quotes?](http://stackoverflow.com/q/7682561), [How do I split a comma delimited string in python except for the commas that are within quotes?](http://stackoverflow.com/q/4982531), [How to split but ignore separators in quoted strings?](http://stackoverflow.com/q/2785755), [and more](https://www.google.com/search?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&q=python+split+commas+except+inside+quotes&nfpr=1&gws_rd=ssl). — jscs, Aug 26 '14 at 08:55

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 26 '14 at 08:54

5

You want to use the csv module instead of reinventing it.

answered Aug 26 '14 at 08:54

aecolley

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I was trying to create an example using `csv.reader`, but no luck so far. It looks like it can't cope with some items being wrapped in quotes, and some not. – Bjorn Aug 26 '14 at 08:57
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thanks @Bjorn, I was able to parse the line using the csv module – JustMe Aug 26 '14 at 09:10
@Bjorn - perhaps something else is going wrong, because the `csv` module most certainly can parse lines where some fields have the delimiter contained within quotes, whereas other lines have no quotes whatsoever. – dwanderson Sep 06 '16 at 19:28
didn't work for combination of commas, colon and escaping: 'categoryFilter: ["5"],priceRanges: "[{\\"min\\":0,\\"max\\":667}]"' – Nir O. Sep 01 '21 at 00:39

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

3

You could try the below code,

>>> import re
>>> string = '"first, element", second element, third element, "fourth, element", fifth element'
>>> m = re.split(r', (?=(?:"[^"]*?(?: [^"]*)*))|, (?=[^",]+(?:,|$))', string)
>>> m
['"first, element"', 'second element', 'third element, "fourth, element"', 'fifth element']

_{Regex stolen from here :-)}

edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

Community

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answered Aug 26 '14 at 08:51

Avinash Raj

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I have marked this as the solution as it is technically the answer to my question although I agree that the csv module is the way to go here – JustMe Aug 26 '14 at 09:09

Split on comma not enclosed by quotes

2 Answers2