Javascript Regex - ignoring certain characters between 2 chars

Question

I have a need to split a string on space character (' ') but while excluding any spaces that come within 2 specific characters (say single quotes).

Here is an example string:

This-is-first-token This-is-second-token 'This is third token'

The output array should look like this:

[0] = This-is-first-token
[1] = This-is-second-token
[2] = 'This is third token'

Question: Can this be done elegantly with regular expression?

Answer 1

Short Answer:

A simple regex for this purpose would be:

/'[^']+'|[^\s]+/g

Sample code:

data = "This-is-first-token This-is-second-token 'This is third token'";
data.match(/'[^']+'|[^\s]+/g);

Result:

["This-is-first-token", "This-is-second-token", "'This is third token'"]

Explanation:

Debuggex Demo

I think this is as simple as you can make it in just a regex.

The g at the end makes it a global match, so you get all three matches. Without it, you get only the first string.

\s matches all whitespace (basically, and tabs, in this instance). So, it would work even if there was a tab between This-is-first-token and This-is-second-token.

To match content in braces, use this:

data.match(/\{[^\}]+\}|[^\s]+/g);

Debuggex Demo

Braces or single quotes:

data.match(/\{[^\}]+\}|'[^']+'|[^\s]+/g);

Debuggex Demo

Answer 2

You can use this split:

var string = "This-is-first-token This-is-second-token 'This is third token'";
var arr = string.split(/(?=(?:(?:[^']*'){2})*[^']*$)\s+/);
//=> ["This-is-first-token", "This-is-second-token", "'This is third token'"]

This assumes quotes are all balanced.