How do you split a string based on delimiter not being between two characters in php regex?

Question

I've tried a bunch of stuff but nothing works. I have a string and I want to split the string by a comma , but don't split if the comma is between a bracket , a brace , or a double or single quotation mark - for this specific case to maintain the complete iframe (which is destroying everything) string. Below is the string ...

class : putmeincoach, 
 id : random_id,  
   responsive : {   [ type= text ;  html = "< iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps/myplaces?ctz=480&ie=UTF8&ll=34.009394,-118.488514&spn=0.020687,0.020921&t=m&z=16"> < /iframe >" ;  ]  }

I just want

Array (
   [0] = 'class : putmeincoach',
   [1] = 'id : random_id',
   [2] = 'responsive : {   [ type= text ;  html = "< iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps/myplaces?ctz=480&ie=UTF8&ll=34.009394,-118.488514&spn=0.020687,0.020921&t=m&z=16"> < /iframe >" ;  ]  } '

Can I do this using preg_split or preg_match with some generalized regex pattern? Lemme also mention that not having the comma between the double quotation marks is really the most important

Answer 1

In PHP:

<?php
$input = '
    class : putmeincoach, 
    id : random_id, 
    responsive : {   [ type= text ;  html = "&lt; iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps/myplaces?ctz=480&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=34.009394,-118.488514&amp;spn=0.020687,0.020921&amp;t=m&amp;z=16"&gt; &lt; /iframe &gt;" ;  ]  }, 
    testsinglequotes: \'hello world\', 
    testdoublequotes: "hello hello"';
$pattern = '/ 
    \b(\w+)\s*:   # capture the word before the colon 
    \s*(          # start capture group match after the colon
        {[^}]*}\s*|     # match everything between braces  OR
        "[^"]*"\s*|      # match everything between double quotes OR
        \'[^\']*\'\s*|   # match everything between single OR
        [^,]*           # match everything up to the comma 
        )         # end capture group
    (?:,|$)       # match comma or end of string (non-capture group) 
    /x';
preg_match_all($pattern ,$input, $matches);
print_r($matches);
?>

Output PHP 5.3.13:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => class : putmeincoach,
            [1] => id : random_id,
            [2] => responsive : {   [ type= text ;  html = "< iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps/myplaces?ctz=480&ie=UTF8&ll=34.009394,-118.488514&spn=0.020687,0.020921&t=m&z=16"> < /iframe >" ;  ]  },
            [3] => testsinglequotes: 'hello world',
            [4] => testdoublequotes: "hello hello"
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => class
            [1] => id
            [2] => responsive
            [3] => testsinglequotes
            [4] => testdoublequotes
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => putmeincoach
            [1] => random_id
            [2] => {   [ type= text ;  html = "< iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps/myplaces?ctz=480&ie=UTF8&ll=34.009394,-118.488514&spn=0.020687,0.020921&t=m&z=16"> < /iframe >" ;  ]  }
            [3] => 'hello world'
            [4] => "hello hello"
        )

)

Regex is your friend

Answer 2

I tried

^(class.*?,).*?(id.*?,).*?(responsive.*,?)$

using http://www.gskinner.com/RegExr/ and this worked. The tricky thing is to use the lazy matching for .* in the first two groups and for the ',' in the last.

You will need to adapt this to PHP since the regex handling is a bit different, I think.