Javascript split by spaces but not those in quotes

Question

The goal is to split a string at the spaces but not split the text data that is in quotes or separate that from the adjacent text.

The input is effectively a string

Answer 1

Any special reason it has to be a regexp?

var str = 'a:0 b:1 moo:"foo bar" c:2';

var parts = [];
var currentPart = "";
var isInQuotes= false;

for (var i = 0; i < str.length, i++) {
  var char = str.charAt(i);
  if (char === " " && !isInQuotes) {
    parts.push(currentPart);
    currentPart = "";
  } else {
    currentPart += char;
  }
  if (char === '"') {
    isInQuotes = !isInQuotes;
  }
}

if (currentPart) parts.push(currentPart);

Answer 2

You could approach it slightly differently and use a Regular Expression to split where spaces are followed by word characters and a colon (rather than a space that's not in a quoted part):

var str = 'a:0 b:1 moo:"foo bar" c:2',
    arr = str.split(/ +(?=[\w]+\:)/g);
/* [a:0, b:1, moo:"foo bar", c:2] */

Demo jsFiddle

What's this Regex doing?
It looks for a literal match on the space character, then uses a Positive Lookahead to assert that the next part can be matched:
[\w]+ = match any word character [a-zA-Z0-9_] between one and unlimited times.
\: = match the : character once (backslash escaped).
g = global modifier - don't return on first match.

Demo Regex101 (with explanation)

Answer 3

You can use this regex for split:

var s = 'a:0 b:1 moo:"foo bar" c:2';

var m = s.split(/ +(?=(?:(?:[^"]*"){2})*[^"]*$)/g);
//=> [a:0, b:1, moo:"foo bar", c:2]

RegEx Demo

It splits on spaces only if it is outside quotes by using a positive lookahead that makes sure there are even number of quotes after a space.