Question

I’m attempting (and failing) to specify a single regex which I can use with PHP’s preg_match_all() for the following:

.foo { bar }
.baz, .bot { bip, bop }

I need to count all { and only , which are not between {}. Given the sample above, I should have exactly three matches. My difficulty (ignorance) is that I do not understand how to specify the “do not match commas between curly braces” part. My current regex matches all commas and opening curly braces:

({)*(,)*

Answer 1

Try this:

\{.+?\}|,

Meaning:

\{   # If you can match a brace
.+?  # then also grab the minimum amount of other charactors
\}   # until you reach the closing brace
|,   # or if there was no brace then just match a comma