Regex how to get groups within json expression

Question

Say I have following JSON:

{"MyPerson":{"Firstname":"First","Lastname":"Last","Where":{"Street":"Street","Number":15}},"AnotherComplexObject":{"Another":"Yes","Me":"True"},"Count":1,"Start":2}

I remove starting { and ending } and get:

"MyPerson":{"Firstname":"First","Lastname":"Last","Where":{"Street":"Street","Number":15}},"AnotherComplexObject":{"Another":"Yes","Me":"True"},"Count":1,"Start":2

Now, what regex would I use to get "complex objects" out, for example in that JSON I would want to get these two results:

{"Firstname":"First","Lastname":"Last","Where":{"Street":"Street","Number":15}}
{"Another":"Yes","Me":"True"}

The closest I've came to solution is this regex {[^}]*} but that one fails to select } in that "Number":15 result.

But...why? This is like trying to parse HTML with RegEx, there will be edge cases. — Madbreaks, Feb 01 '14 at 00:51
Why don't you just parse the JSON into an object and use that? — Barmar, Feb 01 '14 at 00:53
Because it's one way to solve this problem I'm having: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21492529/how-to-serialize-complex-json-object-to-querystring-for-http-get-using-jackson?rq=1 — nikib3ro, Feb 01 '14 at 00:55

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 01 '14 at 03:18

# String
# "MyPerson":{"Firstname":"First","Lastname":"Last","Where":{"Street":"Street","Number":15}},"AnotherComplexObject":{"Another":"Yes","Me":"True"},"Count":1,"Start":2

/({[^}]+}})/
# http://rubular.com/r/rupVEn9yZo
# Match Groups
# 1. {"Firstname":"First","Lastname":"Last","Where":{"Street":"Street","Number":15}}

/({[^}]+})/
# http://rubular.com/r/H5FaoH18c8
# Match Groups
# Match 1
# 1. {"Firstname":"First","Lastname":"Last","Where":{"Street":"Street","Number":15}
# Match 2
# 1. {"Another":"Yes","Me":"True"}

/({[^}]+}})[^{]+({[^}]+})/
# http://rubular.com/r/zmcyjvoR1y
# Match Groups
# 1. {"Firstname":"First","Lastname":"Last","Where":{"Street":"Street","Number":15}}
# 2. {"Another":"Yes","Me":"True"}


# String
# {"MyPerson":{"Firstname":"First","Lastname":"Last","Where":{"Street":"Street","Number":15}},"AnotherComplexObject":{"Another":"Yes","Me":"True"},"Count":1,"Start":2}

/[^{]+({[^}]+}})[^{]+({[^}]+})/
# http://rubular.com/r/qCxN1Rk9Ka
# Match Groups
# 1. {"Firstname":"First","Lastname":"Last","Where":{"Street":"Street","Number":15}}
# 2. {"Another":"Yes","Me":"True"}

Regex how to get groups within json expression

1 Answers1