Question

I have a string something like this.

ars:a:currency (Argentina!: Pesos):

i need to split string using colon, but the colon within the brackets should not be split. i need a regex to split this string.

my output should be like

ars
a
currency (Argentina!: Pesos)**

help is appreciated 🙂

Answer 1

You can do it with a single regex if you’re certain that there won’t be any nested parentheses. In that case you can simply split on a colon only if the next parenthesis is not a closing one:

String[] splitArray = subjectString.split(
    "(?x):    # Multiline regex: Match a colon\n" +
    "(?!      # only if it's impossible to match the following at this point:\n" +
    " [^()]*  #  any number of characters besides parentheses\n" +
    " \\)     #  followed by a closing parenthesis\n" +
    ")        # End of lookahead assertion");