Regex to catch strings that are not inside string pattern

Question

I want to find a regex that catch all strings that are not inside name('stringName') pattern.

For example I have this text:

fdlfksj "hello1" dsffsf "hello2\"hi" name("Tod").name('tod') 'hello3'

I want my regex to catch the strings: "hello1", "hello2\"hi", 'hello3' (it should also should catch "hello2\"hi" because I want to ignore " escaping).

I want also that my regex will ignore "Tod" because it's inside the pattern name("...") How should I do it?

Here is my regex that doens't work:

((?<!(name\())("[^"]*"|'[^']*'))

It doesn't work with ignore escaping: \" and \'

and it's also not ignore name("Tod")

How can I fix it?

lemon · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-12 13:08:59Z

1

You can use the following regex:

(?<!name\()(["'])[^\)]+?(?<!\\)\1

It will match anything other than parenthesis ([^\)]+?):

preceeded by (["']) - a quote symbol
followed by (?<!\\)\1 - the same quote symbol, which is not preceeded by a slash

In order to avoid getting the values that come after name(, there's a condition that checks that (?<!name\().

Check the demo here.

edited Jun 12, 2022 at 13:08

answered Jun 12, 2022 at 12:46

lemon

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9 Comments

RoG Over a year ago

thanks! it's great but I want to ignore only name(...) not all values between parentheses, how can I do it?

lemon Over a year ago

Just remove that extra check. Updated the answer accordingly. @RoG

RoG Over a year ago

but your answer now catch strings inside name(...).

lemon Over a year ago

can you provide a regex101 link? @RoG

RoG Over a year ago

link I want it will catch the string "hh" inside tye(...)

|

Artyom Vancyan · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-12 12:10:41Z

0

(["'])((?:\\\1)|[^\1]*?)\1

Regex Explanation

( Capturing group
- ["'] Match " (double) or ' (single) quote
) Close group
( Capturing group
- (?: Non-capturing group
  - \\\1 Match \ followed by the quote by which it was started
- ) Close non-capturing group
- | OR
- [^\1]*? Non-gready match anything except a quote by which it was started
) Close group
\1 Match the close quote

See the demo

answered Jun 12, 2022 at 12:10

Artyom Vancyan

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Comments

The fourth bird · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-12 16:37:32Z

0

You could get out of the way what you don't want, and use a capture group for what you want to keep.

The matches that you want are in capture group 2.

name\((['"]).*?\1\)|('[^'\\]*(?:\\.[^'\\]*)*'|"[^"\\]*(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*")

Explanation

name\((['"]).*?\1\) Match name and then from the opening parenthesis till closing parenthesis between the same type of quote
| Or
( Capture group 2
- ('[^'\\]*(?:\\.[^'\\]*)*' match the single quoted value including matching escapes ones
- |Or
- [^"\\]*(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*" The same for the double quotes
) Close group 2

Regex demo

edited Jun 12, 2022 at 16:37

answered Jun 12, 2022 at 16:31

The fourth bird

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