How to Split Strings by Spaces While Preserving Quoted Segments Using Regular Expressions?

Splitting Strings with Spaces Excluding Quoted Segments

In the realm of regular expressions, the task of splitting a string on spaces while preserving quoted segments can be daunting for novice users. To address this challenge, we seek a robust solution that accurately separates our input string into its constituent elements.

The example string provided presents a specific case where spaces demarcate words, but not within single or double quoted segments. The desired output retains these quoted segments, ensuring that phrases like "will be" or 'regular expression' remain intact.

A suitable regular expression for this task is surprisingly straightforward:

Breaking down this expression:

• [^s"'] : Matches sequences of characters that are not spaces, quotes, or single quotes.
• "([^"]*)": Matches double-quoted strings, capturing the contents within the second capturing group.
• '([^']*)': Matches single-quoted strings, capturing the contents within the third capturing group.

To utilize this expression in Java, we can employ the following code:

This code iterates over the input string, capturing quoted and unquoted segments, resulting in a list of the split elements. Alternatively, we can use a simpler version:

This simplified version includes both quoted and unquoted elements in the list.

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