How to specify in regex to split : except within 2 double quotes

Question

I now added :, problem is I don't want to split if it is inside double quotes:

let regex = /(?=\.|[\":])/;
test = "test: \"test.test:\""
test.split(regex)

gives

["test", ": ", ""test", ".test", ":", """]

whereas I would like to have

["test", ": ", ""test", ".test:", """]

is it possible for regex (I'm not good at all at it)?

You added the `:` without actually using the suggested solution? Again, note there is no sense separating `\.` and `[":]` patterns since both matcha single char, `(?=\.|[\":])` is the same as `(?=[.":])`. Actually, your desired result is equal to the current output. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Apr 22 '20 at 18:59
@WiktorStribiżew I made a bad copy and paste. I used previous solution from anubhava because it was simpler to start with. I have yet to understand the other one. — user310291, Apr 22 '20 at 19:45

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 22 '20 at 19:50

You may use this regex to match : only outside quotes (assuming quotes are all balanced and unescaped):

const test = "test: \"test.test:\""
var arr = test.split(/(?=[."])|:(?=(?:(?:[^"]*"){2})*[^"]*$)/)

console.log( arr )

Here, (?=(?:(?:[^"]*"){2})*[^"]*$) is a lookahead that asserts that we have even number of quotes ahead of current position.

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