Regex matching closing bracket not in quotes

Question

I am trying to build a regex for matching strings like

1.) $(Something)
2.) $(SomethingElse, ")")
3.) $(SomethingElse, $(SomethingMore), Bla)
4.) $$(NoMatch) <-- should not match
5.) $$$(ShouldMatch) <-- so basically $$ will produce $

in a text.

EDIT: The words Something, SomethingElse, NoMatch, ShouldMatch can be even other words - they are names of macros. The strings i try to match are "macro calls" which can occur in a text and should be replaced by their result. I need the regex just for syntax highlighting. A complete macro call should be highlighted. Number 3 is currently not so import. Number 1 and 2 are required to work. It's fine if number 4 and 5 will not work like written above but that any $( after a $ will not match.

Currently I have

(?<!\$)+\$\(([^)]*)\)

Which matches any $( if there is no leading $, which could be fine if I will not find another way to apply the $$ structure.

The next step I would like to get done is to ignore the closing bracket if it is in quotes. How could I achieve this?

EDIT So that if I have an input like

Some text, doesn't matter what. And a $(MyMacro, ")") which will be replaced.

The complete '$(MyMacro, ")")' will get highlighted.

I already have this expression

"(?:\\\\|\\"|[^"])*"

for quotes including escaping of quotes. But I don't know how to apply this in a way to ignore everything between them...

P.S. I am using .NET to apply the regular expressions. So balanced groups will be supported. I just don't know how to apply all this.

Answer 1

You can use an expression like this:

(?<! \$ )                     # not preceded by $
\$ (?: \$\$ )?                # $ or $$$
\(                            # opening (

(?>                           # non-backtracking atomic group
  (?>                         # non-backtracking atomic group
    [^"'()]+                  # literals, spaces, etc
  | " (?: [^"\\]+ | \\. )* "  # double quoted string with escapes
  | ' (?: [^'\\]+ | \\. )* '  # single quoted string with escapes
  | (?<open>       \( )       # open += 1
  | (?<close-open> \) )       # open -= 1, only if open > 0 (balancing group)
  )*
)

(?(open) (?!) )               # fail if open > 0

\)                            # final )

Which can be quoted as above. For example in C#:

var regex = new Regex(@"(?x)    # enable eXtended mode (ignore spaces, comments)
(?<! \$ )                       # not preceded by $
\$ (?: \$\$ )                   # $ or $$$
\(                              # opening (

(?>                             # non-backtracking atomic group
  (?>                           # non-backtracking atomic group
    [^""'()]+                   # literals, spaces, etc
  | "" (?: [^""\\]+ | \\. )* "" # double quoted string with escapes
  | '  (?: [^'\\]+ | \\. )*  '  # single quoted string with escapes
  | (?<open>       \( )         # open += 1
  | (?<close-open> \) )         # open -= 1, only if open > 0 (balancing group)
  )*
)

(?(open) (?!) )                 # fail if open > 0

\)                              # final )
");