Question

Imagine this:

a = "('a','b','c'),('d','e','f')"

I am trying to split it using re so that I will get an array of 2 elements, containing "('a','b','c')" and ('d','e','f'). I tried :

matches = re.split("(?:\)),(?:\()",a)

but this gives me the result:

'(2,3,4'
'1,6,7)'

I could parse it, character by character, but if a regex solution is possible, I would prefer it.

Answer 1

You need to split on the comma which is preceded by a ) and followed by a (. But the parenthesis themselves should not be part of the split point. For that you need to use positive lookahead and positive look behind assertions as:

matches = re.split("(?<=\)),(?=\()",a)

See it