java regex split text with ; but not matching within quotes(including escaped quotes within )

Question

I need to parse a string ; as a delimiter. But don't need to parse the text if it is within double quotes.

Example I need to parse

this ; "but not ; this"

For this I have come up with regex pattern which works fine.

;(?=(?:(?:[^\"]*\"){2})*[^\"]*$)

Now if text contains escaped quotes, the above pattern doesn't work.

I need to parse

this ; "but \" not ; this"

Could you help me with the pattern which omits escaped quotes within quotes?

anubhava · Answer 1 · 2013-08-29T22:09:34.093

0

As long as double quotes are not unbalanced you can use this regex with negative look-behind:

(?s);(?=(?:(?:.*?(?<!\\\\)\"){2})*[^\"]*$)

edited Aug 29 '13 at 22:09

answered Aug 29 '13 at 21:55

anubhava

Thanks Anubhava. It works fine.. But if text contains \n , parsing logic is failing. My previous regex works well with \n \t also. – user1083206 Aug 29 '13 at 22:06
1

Ok in that case you need to use `(?s)` also. See edit. – anubhava Aug 29 '13 at 22:09

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