Split string by regex in Ruby

Question

I need to split a string by commas that are outside brackets. I have this string:

'a,b,c,d[a,b,c[a,b]],e'

and my split needs to return:

['a', 'b', 'c', 'd[a,b,c[a,b]]', 'e']

How can I do that?

Hey, thanks for asking your first SO question! Welcome. Question. What larger problem are you trying to solve here? Are you interfacing with a system that you can't change? Sometimes when trying to parse complicated strings or syntax the answer can be to solve a different problem. For example, if your data was a valid JSON string, then you could just parse it, manipulate it as an array, and then convert it back to JSON. — Jared Menard
– Jared Menard, Commented Mar 1, 2018 at 21:27
Your question is not clear. What do you want to return for 'a,b],c'? Is the comma between a and b inside or outside of the brackets? Or, if it is the case that such string is outside of your consideration, then state what kind of strings are subject to your issue. — sawa
– sawa, Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 11:30
sawa, your answer worked for me, its exactly what i'm looking for! Thanks! — Lucas Augusto Corrêa
– Lucas Augusto Corrêa, Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 11:38

sawa · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-02 11:19:00Z

1

'a,b,c,d[a,b,c[a,b]],e'
.scan(/(?:\[[^\]]*\]|[^,])+/)
# => ["a", "b", "c", "d[a,b,c[a,b]]", "e"]

'a,[a][b],e'
.scan(/(?:\[[^\]]*\]|[^,])+/)
# => ["a", "[a][b]", "e"]

answered Mar 2, 2018 at 11:19

sawa

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1 Comment

trushkevich Over a year ago

this answer is much better, I just deleted mine

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