Regex: split string by character except if inside quotes or double quotes

Question

I need to split a string using a delimiter character (= in my example) , except if this character is inside quotes or double quotes

I succeed to do it within single quotes using \=+(?=(?:(?:[^']*'){2})*[^']*$) , or within double quotes using \=+(?=(?:(?:[^"]*"){2})*[^"]*$), but not for both, what would be the appropriate RegExp ?

Bonus: if it can also split when the character is not inside character ` , it would be perfect :)

What I need :

Edit: Javascript example to reproduce ( https://jsfiddle.net/cgnorhm0/ )

function splitByCharExceptInsideString(str, delimiterChar) {
    // split line by character except when it is inside quotes
    const escapedChar = delimiterChar.replace(/[-[\]{}()*+!<=:?./\\^$|#\s,]/g, "\\$&");
    const regSplit = new RegExp(escapedChar + `+(?=(?:(?:[^']*'){2})*[^']*$)`);
    const splits = str.split(regSplit);
    return splits ;
}

const testStr = `image.inside {
    sshagent(credentials: ['ssh-creds']) {
        env.GIT_SSH_COMMAND="ssh -T -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no"
        env.GIT_SSH_COMMAND2='ssh -T -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no'
    }
}`;
const delimiterChar = '=';

const splitLs = splitByCharExceptInsideString(testStr,delimiterChar);
console.log(splitLs);

This is a pretty difficult question with no easy answer. [See more discussion here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6462578/regex-to-match-all-instances-not-inside-quotes) — A. Pond, Jul 16 '20 at 22:43
Both regex do not handle this example: `'inside = ' and another = '...` — Mohsen Alyafei, Jul 16 '20 at 22:56
Why do you need to do this anyways? Seems illogical. Use logic instead. — StackSlave, Jul 16 '20 at 23:04

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 16 '20 at 22:54

1

lookahead and lookbehind don't consume character so you can use multiple of them together. you can use

\=+(?=(?:(?:[^"]*"){2})*[^"]*$)(?=(?:(?:[^']*'){2})*[^']*$)(?=(?:(?:[^`]*`){2})*[^`]*$)

Regex Demo

answered Jul 16 '20 at 22:54

mjrezaee

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This will fail when the quotes do not match like this: `'inside = ' and another = '...` – Mohsen Alyafei Jul 16 '20 at 22:55

kmaork · Answer 2 · 2020-07-17T00:24:49.690

0

The regex below finds = characters that are not inside `, ", or ' pairs.

const regex = /=(?=.*)(?=(?:'.*?'|".*?"|`.*?`).*?)/;

Behavior with your example:

edited Jul 17 '20 at 00:24

answered Jul 16 '20 at 23:00

kmaork

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not working :/ https://imgur.com/a/MLNGfwc – Nicolas Vuillamy Jul 16 '20 at 23:02
very odd, I'm using the same website and it's working for me... – kmaork Jul 16 '20 at 23:06
Are you using the javascript syntax? – kmaork Jul 16 '20 at 23:07
can you save on regex101 and post the link ? – Nicolas Vuillamy Jul 16 '20 at 23:37

Regex: split string by character except if inside quotes or double quotes

2 Answers2