Regex to match text, but not if contained in brackets [duplicate]

Answer 1

Try this Regex (if you don't need javascript regex):

(?<!\()\b\w+\b(?![\)])

See Explanation and try Demos

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You may have some complex texts between (..\n..). So I suggest:

1- Add ) in beginning and ( to end of string! wait!

2- split your text with this regex /\)[^\(]*\b(\w+)\b[^\)]*\(/ or execute this regex, two similar ways!

3- you've extract texts out of parenthesis and you can use /\b\w+\b/ to match your words in out of parenthesis in Original text. /\bAPPLE\b/ is for APPLE.

for example:

var mytext = "Long text (for finding APPLE word and maybe replace\n"+
"by bold APPLE or something else!)\n"+
"So if APPLE APPLE and APPLE appear out of parenthesis\n"+
"they should convert to bold APPLE !" ;   
mytext = ")" + mytext + "(" ;

var r= new RegExp(/\)[^\(]*\b(\w+)\b[^\)]*\(/g);
var res = mytext.match(r) ;

console.log(res);

//for each matched item in res,
//  find APPLE and replace with new value
//   by this regex: /\b\w+\b/g

in this case, you will able to ignore APPLE in "(BANANA APPLE what? no! it's not working :P should)" or more complex texts!

Answer 2

Hope this will work fine

Regex: (?<!\()\bAPPLE\b(?![\w\s]*[\)])

\b a word boundary

(?![\w\s]*[\)]) Negatively lookahead for ) followed by words or spaces

(?<!\() Negatively lookbehind for (

RegexDemo

Answer 3

We don't know what language you are implementing this regex in, but if in a language/environment that supports (*SKIP)(*FAIL) (like php) then it is very useful. (Pattern Demo)

\([^)]*\)(*SKIP)(*FAIL)|[^(\s]+

This will accurately isolate the desired substrings in this test string...

APPLE (BANANA) APPLE (ORANGE)
(BANANA APPLE APPLE ORANGE)
APPLE APPLE APPLE
(APPLE ORANGE BANANA)
APPLE (APPLE)
PINEAPPLE
(BANANA APPLE)
() APPLE ()
(ORANGE KIWI
APPLE
KIWI)
(ORANGE APPLE) APPLE

Because it does not use capture groups or lookarounds or lazy qualifiers, it performs very quickly.