A RegEx to split by semicolon outside single or double quotes

Question

I need a JavaScript RegEx to split a string by semicolon outside single or double quotes.

Actually i'm using the following regex /(?!\B['"][^'"]*);(?![^'"]*['"]\B)/gm that sadly doesn't cover every case.

What i need:

const string = `Lorem ipsum; "dolor sit; amet"; consectetur 'adipiscing; elit.' Fusce; sit amet ligula.; Phasellus in laoreet quam.`;

const resultArr = string.split(/THEREGEX/gm);

console.log(resultArr);
// ["Lorem ipsum", "\"dolor sit; amet\"", " consectetur 'adipiscing; elit.' Fusce", "sit amet ligula.", " Phasellus in laoreet quam."]

I suggest not using a regex and just doing it with a loop with a stack to keep track of quotes. — SuperStormer, Apr 29 '21 at 17:21
I have reopened because you mentioned single or double quotes. Similar questions: [Splitting on comma outside quotes](https://stackoverflow.com/q/18893390) and [Split a string by commas but ignore commas within double-quotes using Javascript](https://stackoverflow.com/q/11456850) and [Split string by comma, but ignore commas inside quotes](https://stackoverflow.com/q/23582276) — adiga, Apr 29 '21 at 17:29

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2021-04-29T18:53:09.110

You may use this regex:

((?:[^;'"]*(?:"(?:\\.|[^"])*"|'(?:\\.|[^'])*')[^;'"]*)+)|;

RegEx Demo

Code:

const s = `Lorem ipsum; "dolor sit; amet"; consectetur 'adipiscing; elit.' Fusce; sit amet ligula.; Phasellus in laoreet quam.`
const re = /((?:[^;'"]*(?:"(?:\\.|[^"])*"|'(?:\\.|[^'])*')[^;'"]*)+)|;/

console.log( s.split(re).filter(Boolean) )

RegEx Details:

(: Start capture group #1
- [^;'"]*: Match 0 or more any character that are not ' and " and not ;
- (?:: Start non-capture group
  - "(?:\\.|[^"])*": Match a double quoted substring ignoring all escaped quotes
  - |: OR
  - '(?:\\.|[^'])*': Match a single quoted substring ignoring all escaped quotes
- ): End non-capture group
- [^;'"]*: Match 0 or more any character that are not ' and " and not ;
): End capture group #1
|: OR
;: Match a ;
.filter(Boolean): is used to remove empty results from split array

A RegEx to split by semicolon outside single or double quotes

1 Answers1