java - RegEx for ["abc", ["123", "cba"]] -

i'm not strong in regex, appreciated.

i need parse such strings:

["text", "text", ["text",["text"]],"text"] 

and output should (4 strings):

text, text, ["text",["text"]], text 

i've tried pattern (\\[[^\\[,^\\]]*\\])|(\"([^\"]*)\"):

string data="\"aa\", \"aaa\", [\"bb\", [\"1\",\"2\"]], [cc]"; pattern p=pattern.compile("(\\[[^\\[,^\\]]*\\])|(\"([^\"]*)\")"); 

but output (quotes in output not critical):

"aa", "aaa", "bb", "1", "2", [cc] 

how improve regex?

i'm not sure regex able kind of stuff on own. here way though:

// data string string input = "\"aa\", \"a, aa\", [\"bb\", [\"1\", \"2\"]], [cc], [\"dd\", [\"5\"]]"; system.out.println(input);  // char can't ever within data string char tempreplacement = '#'; // escape strings containing commas, e.g "hello, world", ["x, y", 42] while(input.matches(".*\"[^\"\\[\\]]+,[^\"\\[\\]]+\".*")) {     input = input.replaceall("(\"[^\"\\[\\]]+),([^\"\\[\\]]+\")", "$1" + tempreplacement + "$2"); } // while there "[*,*]" substrings while(input.matches(".*\\[[^\\]]+,[^\\]]+\\].*")) {     // replace nested "," chars replacement char     input = input.replaceall("(\\[[^\\]]+),([^\\]]+\\])", "$1" + tempreplacement + "$2"); }  // split string remaining "," (i.e. non nested) string[] split = input.split(",");  list<string> output = new linkedlist<string>(); for(string s : split) {     // replace replacement chars ","     s = s.replaceall(tempreplacement + "", ",");     s = s.trim();     output.add(s); }  // syso system.out.println("split:"); for(string s : output) {     system.out.println("\t" + s); } 

output:

"aa", "a, aa", ["bb", ["1", "2"]], [cc], ["dd", ["5"]] split:     "aa"     "a, aa"     ["bb", ["1","2"]]     [cc]     ["dd", ["5"]] 

ps: code seems complex 'cause commented. here more concise version:

public static list<string> split(string input, char tempreplacement) {     while(input.matches(".*\"[^\"\\[\\]]+,[^\"\\[\\]]+\".*")) {         input = input.replaceall("(\"[^\"\\[\\]]+),([^\"\\[\\]]+\")", "$1" + tempreplacement + "$2");     }     while(input.matches(".*\\[[^\\]]+,[^\\]]+\\].*")) {         input = input.replaceall("(\\[[^\\]]+),([^\\]]+\\])", "$1" + tempreplacement + "$2");     }     string[] split = input.split(",");     list<string> output = new linkedlist<string>();     for(string s : split) {         output.add(s.replaceall(tempreplacement + "", ",").trim());     }     return output; } 

call:

string input = "\"aa\", \"a, aa\", [\"bb\", [\"1\", \"2\"]], [cc], [\"dd\", [\"5\"]]"; list<string> output = split(input, '#');