Regex for splitting a string using space and special characters when not surrounded by single or double quotes

Question

Regarding this question, what about adding special characters to the mix? And also saving the spaces into the list as well.

Example

This is a string, that "will be" highlighted when your 'regular expression' matches something!!!

Gives me

This

is

a

string
,

that

"will be"

highlighted

when

your

'regular expression'

matches

something
!
!
!

But i wasn't able to make it work with special characters as well...

I tried (?=[^A-Za-z0-9])|(?<=[^A-Za-z0-9])|[\\s\"']+|\"[^\"]*\"|'[^']*', which results in

This

is

a

string ,

that

" will

be "

highlighted

when

your

' regular

expression '

matches

something
!
!
!

EDIT I managed to find the regex i needed myself

(\"[^\"]*\")|\\W|\\w+

This will split all words, whitespaces and special characters. It also keeps everything that are within double quotes as one element by itself

Which "special" characters did you use and why did it not work? What was the result? — The fourth bird, Apr 17 '20 at 06:20
i added (?=[^A-Za-z0-9])|(?<=[^A-Za-z0-9]) into the pattern, i want to do for all special characters — user3413646, Apr 17 '20 at 06:23
Stating your question as a variant of a linked question is problematic and unnecessary, especially when the earlier question is quite short. It would be better to state a complete question, possibly mentioning that it is similar to the earlier one, giving the link. If the earlier question were deleted (perhaps not likely) your question would become a ship without an anchor. If readers have a question about the earlier question who are they to ask for clarification? Lastly, "...adding special characters to the mix?" and "...saving the spaces into the list as well." are vague. — Cary Swoveland, Apr 17 '20 at 06:36
This part of the pattern `[\\s\"']+` is missing the leading `^` and should be `[^\\s\"']+` The two parts that you added to the alternation are lookaround assertions and are non consuming. See https://regex101.com/r/Pbi2Hn/1 where the matches are. It is still not clear what you are trying to achieve. — The fourth bird, Apr 17 '20 at 06:41

0 Answers0