Regex - Replace only if the pattern is not inside a quote

Question

Lets say i want to write a regular expression to replace the word Dog with the word Cat.

e.g.

Dogs are scary.

will become:

Cats are scary.

But i want this regex to be applied only if the word Dog is not inside a quote.

e.g.

Dogs are scary but my mom told me that "Dogs are cute"

will become:

Cats are scary but my mom told me that "Dogs are cute"

I have no idea how to do it. Help me please :)

In this specific example i use php but i think that it is irrelevant. — areller, Dec 26 '14 at 13:59
Offcourse it is relevent. The flavour of regex used in different languages are different. There are features that are not supported by some languages such as look behind for example — nu11p01n73R, Dec 26 '14 at 14:00
`regex` is not the most appropriate tool for this job. It can do it but the corresponding `regex` is complex and contains features that are not supported by all the languages that can handle `regex`. I would do it in two steps: first split the text in pieces that are enclosed in quotes or not (`regex` can do that) then use a simple string replacement function to do the change only in the pieces not enclosed in quotes. — axiac, Dec 26 '14 at 14:16

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 26 '14 at 13:59

2

You can use this regex for search:

(?=(([^"]*"){2})*[^"]*$)Dogs

And replace by:

Cats

It matches text only if outside quote -- i.e. match even number of quotes after keyword dogs.

answered Dec 26 '14 at 13:59

anubhava

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:12

1

If you're running perl or php you could use the below regex which uses the PCRE verb (*SKIP)(*F)

"[^"]*"(*SKIP)(*F)|Dog

Then replace the matched Dog string with Cat

edited May 23 '17 at 12:12

Community

answered Dec 26 '14 at 13:58

Avinash Raj

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 26 '14 at 15:35

0

Dogs(?=(?:[^"]*"[^"]*")*[^"]*$)

Try this.Replace by cat.See demo.

answered Dec 26 '14 at 15:35

vks

3 Answers3