How can I perform conditional splitting in python?

Question

I want to split string with comma when comma is not surrounded by ().

str = r"a,b,c,test(1,2,3),g,h,test(2,4,6)"

Desired split

split = ['a','b','c','test(1,2,3)','g','h','test(2,4,6)']

how can I do using regex python

My efforts so far,

splits = [m.start() for m in re.finditer(',', string_i)]

paranths = {10: 16, 26: 32} #using function

lst = []

first = 1
for l in splits:
    print l
    for m in paranths:
        if (l < m and l < paranths[m]):
            #print m,':',l,':',paranths[m]
            lst.append(string_i[first:l])
            first = l+1
            break
            break

Answer 1

As said above you can use negative look behind and ahead pattern matching.

import re

my_str = r"a,b,c,test(1,2,3),g,h,test(2,4,6)"

print(re.split('(?<!\(.),(?!.\))', my_str))

Answer 2

You can use a negative lookbehind and a negative lookahead to find all , which are not surrounded by a bracket )(.

(?<![)(]),(?![)(])

Here is a live example: https://regex101.com/r/uEyTN8/2

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Details:

• (?<! ) if the characters inside the parenthesis match before the next occurence, it will dismiss the match of the next occurrence
• (?! ) if the characters inside the parenthesis match after the occurence, it will dismiss the match of this occurrence
• [)(] match parenthesis