Question

I would like to know how I could transform the given string into the specified array:

String

all ("hi there \(option\)", (this, that), other) another

Result wanted (Array)

[0] => all,
[1] => Array(
    [0] => "hi there \(option\)",
    [1] => Array(
        [0] => this,
        [1] => that
    ),
    [2] => other
),
[2] => another

This is used for a kind of console that I’m making on PHP.
I tried to use preg_match_all but, I don’t know how I could find parentheses inside parentheses in order to “make arrays inside arrays”.

EDIT

All other characters that are not specified on the example should be treated as String.

EDIT 2

I forgot to mention that all parameter’s outside the parentheses should be detected by the space character.

Answer 1

There’s no question that you should write parser if you are building syntax tree. But if you just need to parse this sample input regex still might be a tool:

<?php
$str = 'all, ("hi there", (these, that) , other), another';

$str = preg_replace('/\, /', ',', $str); //get rid off extra spaces
/*
 * get rid off undefined constants with surrounding them with quotes
*/
$str = preg_replace('/(\w+),/', '\'$1\',', $str);
$str = preg_replace('/(\w+)\)/', '\'$1\')', $str);
$str = preg_replace('/,(\w+)/', ',\'$1\'', $str);

$str = str_replace('(', 'array(', $str);

$str = 'array('.$str.');';

echo '<pre>';
eval('$res = '.$str); //eval is evil.
print_r($res); //print the result

Demo.

Note: If input will be malformed regex will definitely fail. I am writing this solution just in a case you need fast script. Writing lexer and parser is time-consuming work, that will need lots of research.