How can I split string by same sequence of symbols using REGEX?

Question

I have string "'a'a'a'a'b'c'c'a'a'd'e'e'e'e" and I need create an array of strings in this mode:

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

How can I get it with regex?

Answer 1

You can match them with

(?:^')?(.')\1*(?:.$)?

See regex demo

The regex matches optional ' at the beginning with (?:^')?, then matches and captures any symbol other than a newline followed by a ' (with (.')), followed by itself any number of times (with \1*) and then followed by an optional any symbol but a newline at the end of the string (with (?:.$)?).

Output:

'a'a'a'a'
b'
c'c'
a'a'
d'
e'e'e'e

Answer 2

Instead of splitting you can use a match using this regex:

(('[^']+)\2*)

RegEx Demo

This will match a single quote followed by 1 or more non-single-quote character and group it. Later a back-reference can be used to match 0 or more occurrences of captured string.

Answer 3

This regex uses lookarounds. In the lookbehind it captures and looks ahead.

(?<=(\w)'(?!\1))

Matches right after ' if between different characters and left is a word character.