Split string by comma only when it's between brackets

Question

I have a string like this:

String str = "[a,b,c,d],[1,2,3,4],[a,gf,d,cvb],[4,3,2,1]";

I want to split this string into four parts, like this:

[a,b,c,d]
[1,2,3,4]
[a,gf,d,cvb]
[4,3,2,1]

I tried this:

List<String> splitWords = Arrays.asList(str.split("\\],\\["));

When I use this, I get following strings:

[a,b,c,d
1,2,3,4
a,gf,d,cvb
4,3,2,1]

In this case, I also remove brackets next to commas, but I don't want to do that. What is the regex for my problem?

Answer 1

Try this:

    List<String> splitWords = Arrays.asList(str.split("],"));
    for(int i = 0; i < splitWords.size()-1; i++)
        splitWords.set(i, splitWords.get(i) + "]");

Answer 2

this regex can do what you are looking for:

"[(.*?)]"

Example:

String str = "[a,b,c,d],[1,2,3,4],[a,gf,d,cvb],[4,3,2,1]";
Pattern logEntry = Pattern.compile("\\[(.*?)\\]");
Matcher matchPattern = logEntry.matcher(str);
while (matchPattern.find()) {
    System.out.println("[" + matchPattern.group(1) + "]");
}

that will print:

[a,b,c,d]

[1,2,3,4]

[a,gf,d,cvb]

[4,3,2,1]

which is what you are looking for...