Extract outermost lists from string using regex

Question

I have a long string containing attributes, in order to parse this I am attempting to extract the 'lists' from the string, I'm having some trouble particularly when dealing with multi-dimensional lists.

An Example String:

'a="foo",c=[d="test",f="bar",g=[h="some",i="text"],j="over"],k="here",i=[j="baz"]'

I would like to extract

c=[d="test",f="bar",g=[h="some",i="text"],j="over"]

and

i=[j="baz"]

from this string.

Is this possible using regex?

I've tried numerous different regex, this is my most recent one:

([^\W0-9]\w*=\[.*\])

I remember seeing a very similar question a few days ago: stackoverflow.com/questions/74164066/… — Swifty
– Swifty, Commented Oct 26, 2022 at 16:30

Hai Vu · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-26 17:26:09Z

1

This string looks like a JSON object, with a few differences. My plan is to turn this into a JSON string, then parse it. After that, it is a matter of picking out what you want:

import json
import re

def str2obj(the_string):
    out = re.sub(r"(\w+)=", f'"\\1":', the_string)
    out = out.replace("[", "{").replace("]", "}")
    out = "{%s}" % out
    out = json.loads(out)
    return out


string_object = 'a="foo",c=[d="test",f="bar",g=[h="some",i="text"],j="over"],k="here",i=[j="baz"]'
json_object = str2obj(string_object)
print(json_object)
assert json_object["a"] == "foo"
assert json_object["c"] == {
    'd': 'test',
    'f': 'bar',
    'g': {'h': 'some', 'i': 'text'},
    'j': 'over'
}
assert json_object["k"] == "here"
assert json_object["i"] == {"j": "baz"}

Output:

{'a': 'foo', 'c': {'d': 'test', 'f': 'bar', 'g': {'h': 'some', 'i': 'text'}, 'j': 'over'}, 'k': 'here', 'i': {'j': 'baz'}}

Notes

The re.sub call replace a= with "a":
The replace calls turn the square brackets into the curly ones
There is no error checking in the code, I assume what you have is valid in term of balanced brackets

answered Oct 26, 2022 at 17:26

Hai Vu

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1 Comment

Mahe Siva Over a year ago

Unfortunately the example I provided is actually a substring of the actual string, I actually attempted this approach before deciding to separate different parts of the string to parse it. My end goal is to convert the string into json. The actual string is formatted very strangely so in order to parse it I need to separate the lists from the other attributes which is what I'm trying to do here.

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