Question

I have a string in the in the following format

,"value","value2","3",("this is, a test"), "3"

How can I split by commas when they are not within parenthesis?

Edit: Sorry slight problem/correction, inside the parenthesis the format is actually

 ,"value","value2","3",(THIS IS THE FORMAT "AND QUOTES, INSIDE"), "3"

Answer 1

Consider this code:

$str = ',"value","value2","3",(THIS IS THE FORMAT \) "AND QUOTES, INSIDE"), "3"';
$regex = '#(\(.*?(?<!\\\)\))\s*,|,#';
$arr = preg_split( $regex, $str, 0, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE|PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY );
print_r($arr);

OUTPUT:

Array
(
    [0] => "value"
    [1] => "value2"
    [2] => "3"
    [3] => (THIS IS THE FORMAT \) "AND QUOTES, INSIDE")
    [4] =>  "3"
)