如何将字符串拆分为多个用[]括起来的子字符串，以及在子字符串中还找到分隔符的地方？

Question

TLDR;

In Javascript, how do I split this string [test,string,0,5,bob,0,1],[age,number,1,100,20,0,1], [male,const,0,0,yes,200,1] into an array of substrings each bounded by [] :

[test,string,0,5,bob,0,1] , [age,number,1,100,20,0,1] , [male,const,0,0,yes,200,1]

Context:

I need to process lines from a config file into an array, using Node JS. A line is a string of the form:

someID,[test,string,0,5,bob,0,1],[age,number,1,100,20,0,1],[male,const,0,0,yes,200,1]

This needs to end up as an element in an array:

var config = [
// One line from the config file:
['someID', ['test','string',0,5,'bob',0,1],[12,'number',1,100,20,0,1],['male','const',0,0,'yes',200,1]],

// more elements each representing a line...
];

I can get the first item off the config line, 'someID' above, using line.split(',',1)[0] but how do I separate the rest of the string into sub elements bound by [ and ] ?

I've tried JS string.match() :

var elements = str.match(/\[(.*)\]/g);

but I get a single string with

"[test,string,0,5,bob,0,1],[age,number,1,100,20,0,1], [male,const,0,0,yes,200,1]"

(I realise this is because it's only matching against the first [ and last ] and not processing everything in between)

rather than an array with separate strings:

"[test,string,0,5,bob,0,1]",
"[age,number,1,100,20,0,1]",
"[male,const,0,0,yes,200,1]",

JS .split(',') obviously takes every single comma into account and splits on all of them rather than just the commas outside the [] . I think solution will be a regex? Thanks.

Answer 1

Your approach using str.match(/\\[(.*)\\]/g) is very good, it just needs a little adjustment. Instead of using .* which will match every character you should use [^\\]] to match every character except a closing bracket.

 const str = "someID,[test,string,0,5,bob,0,1],[age,number,1,100,20,0,1],[male,const,0,0,yes,200,1]"; console.log(str.match(/\\[[^\\]]+\\]/g)) 

• \\[ Match an opening bracket
• [^] Match all characters not in this set
• [^\\]] Match all characters execpt ]
• [^\\]]+ Match one ore more charcters that are not ]
• \\] Match a closing bracket