Split string by spaces but ignore spaces in quotation marks

Question

I want to split a string, any string, into an array by spaces, preferably with the split() method. However, I wish to ignore spaces in quotation marks.

Take, for example:

'word "words in double quotes"'

It should become an array with:

[
  'word',
  'words in double quotes'
]

I looked at similar answers to this, and they usually gave an array with:

[
  'word',
  '"words in double quotes"'
]

and that isn't what I'm looking for. I don't want the quotation marks added into the array element.

What regular expression could I use?

it's impossible with `split` alone as `split` can't remove the final quotation mark without, well introducing another split. Try e.g. `const [match, first, second] = string.match(/^(.*) "(.*)"$/)` — le_m, Jan 08 '18 at 00:12
maybe `'word "words in double quotes"'.split(/"(.*?)"|\s+/g).filter(Boolean)`, but depends on how quotes within the quotes are escaped — Slai, Jan 08 '18 at 01:08
Does this answer your question? [Javascript split string on space or on quotes to array](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2817646/javascript-split-string-on-space-or-on-quotes-to-array) — ggorlen, Oct 15 '20 at 17:48

Angel Politis · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-08T07:18:34.673

2

I don't think what you want can be achieved through the use of String.prototype.split alone, because its use will most likely lead to empty strings in the resulting array; and that's about the string you gave. If you need a general solution to your problem I believe split won't work at all.

If your goal is to produce the same result irrespective of the actual string, I'd suggest you use a combination of String.prototype.match, [].map and String.prototype.replace as shown:

Code:

var
  /* The string. */
  string = 'apples bananas "apples and bananas" pears "apples and bananas and pears"',

  /* The regular expression. */
  regex = /"[^"]+"|[^\s]+/g,

  /* Use 'map' and 'replace' to discard the surrounding quotation marks. */
  result = string.match(regex).map(e => e.replace(/"(.+)"/, "$1"));
  
console.log(result);

Explanation of the regex used:

"[^"]+": Capture any sequence of characters (at least 1) inside two quotation marks except a quotation mark.
|: Logical OR.
[^\s]+: Capture any sequence of non-whitespace characters (at least 1).
g: The global flag - instruction to match all occurrences.

edited Jan 08 '18 at 07:18

answered Jan 08 '18 at 00:23

Angel Politis

10,955
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Sorry, I meant for the `word "words with double quotes"` string to act as an example. The regular expression should work with any string, such as `command arg1 "arg 2" arg3` or `apples bananas "apples and bananas"` I fixed the wording in the post to clear up any confusion. – kerabite Jan 08 '18 at 03:23
Check out my answer once more @insertcodehere. I have updated it to match any given string. I hope this helps – Angel Politis Jan 08 '18 at 07:19
Thanks for all your help! @Angel Politis – kerabite Jan 08 '18 at 18:41
Also, while this is an adequate answer, would it be possible to remove the `map()` method and just somehow implement it into the regular expression? – kerabite Jan 08 '18 at 18:44

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 08 '18 at 04:30

0

I hope this is what you're looking for:

var words = 'word "words in double quotes" more text "stuff in quotes"';
var wordArray = words.match(/"([^"]+)"|[^" ]+/g);
for(var i=0,l=wordArray.length; i<l; i++){
  wordArray[i] = wordArray[i].replace(/^"|"$/g, '');
}
console.log(wordArray);

answered Jan 08 '18 at 04:30

StackSlave

10,613
2
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not sure why this was downvoted, it works fine. I also did a jsbench and this one is faster too. this should be the accepted answer, not the one by Angel Politis – moeiscool Oct 05 '20 at 23:04

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 08 '18 at 07:04

split initial string by "
split each odd item in result of #1 by space

using regexp dramatically affects readability and maintainability of your code. especially when your are trying to make workaround about existing limitations(say, lacking look behind).

Split string by spaces but ignore spaces in quotation marks

3 Answers3