Regex match array notation

Question

I am trying to find array-like occurrences in a string.

For instance for this text

Ut ac nisi eget est tempus mattis. Sed et dapibus lorem. Suspendisse laoreet ante arcu, sed ornare a(diam)[test] ornare eget. Nunc a(pulvinar)[anoter][test] porttitor accumsan. Donec quis accumsan enim.Ut sed sem posuere, a(pharetra)[another[nested][a(test)]] sapien a, molestie odio. Donec euismod, lectus et sollicitudin condimentum, felis dolor feugiat arcu

i want to match bold parts.

i got this far:

\a\((.*?)\)(\[.*?])+

this matches first two, but the last test has the last closing bracket missing.(If i nest once more 2 closing brackets becomes missing)

results:

a(diam)[test]
a(pulvinar)[anoter][test]
a(pharetra)[another[nested][a(test)] <--- last closing bracket missing.

any help?

You might know about this already, but: cyber-reality.com/regexy.html Has been a great help for me when building regexes — Jon Carlstedt
– Jon Carlstedt, Commented Oct 8, 2013 at 13:20
@thg435: it's posibble to match but i guess it's not possible to capture every [] seperately when they are nested. — Quad
– Quad, Commented Oct 8, 2013 at 13:51
@Jon, thanks. i am using regexpal.com but it's always useful to have a cheat sheet like that handy. — Quad
– Quad, Commented Oct 8, 2013 at 13:52

Kita · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-08 14:07:40Z

1

How about embedding the nested structure in regular expression like this:

a\(\w+\)(\[.+?(\[.+\])*\])+
              ---------  
              embeded nesting

EDIT:

(a\(\w+\)(?:\[.+?(?:\[.+\])*\])+)

Added non-capturing symbols to mitigate "undefined" captures.

edited Oct 8, 2013 at 14:07

answered Oct 8, 2013 at 13:23

Kita

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3 Comments

Quad Over a year ago

Thanks! Everyting is fine, but of course it captures "undefined" when there is no nesting. I am guessing capturing everything between every [] seperately is not possible with js regex. i ended up with \a((.*?))((?:[.*?]+)+). only added + after last ] in my original regex and changed capturing groups. Capturing this way is mot logical for my use case.

Kita Over a year ago

I edited my answer. Now there is only one group for capturing whole text.

Quad Over a year ago

Used slightly modified version of your edited expression in the end. My version was not properly matching if there was nothing between [].

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