Regex matching left single quotation outside the double quotations

Question

Note :

left double quotation (") = &ldquo

right double quotation (") = &rdquo

left single quotation (') = &lsquo

My current regex is this

(?<!.*&ldquo.*)&lsquo

It matches the &lsquo in here (which is right):

&ldquoThis is a sample&rdquo &lsquosample text

It also matches the &lsquo in here (which I don't want to happen because the single quote is inside the left and right double quote):

&ldquoThis &lsquois a sample&rdquo

How can I write a regex that will match every &lsquo that are NOT inside the left and right quotation

Thanks for all your help!

what about the `right single quote`.Is it there or not..Plz explain properly about what you actually want!With a list of **VALID** and **INVALID** examples... — Anirudha, Aug 24 '12 at 06:20
I don't quite understand what you are trying to do here but I get a feeling that you are trying to parse a non regular expression. What happens if the quotes are nested and then nested again? — Jonas Elfström, Aug 24 '12 at 06:47

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 24 '12 at 06:26

1

If I understood ur question..This may be what you want

(?<!&ldquo.*?)&lsquo(?!&rdquo)

answered Aug 24 '12 at 06:26

Anirudha

I need to match all &lsquo that are outside of &ldquo and &rdquo, – neo Aug 24 '12 at 06:31
Thanks for your answer! With that I found my right regex for my question. – neo Aug 24 '12 at 06:40

Derpy Derp · Answer 2 · 2012-08-24T06:09:22.593

0

Use ASCII escape sequence to tell the regex which characters are you referring to.

So the regex you need is: [\x93]*[^x94]

Or if your you know what characters your string consists of, then: [A-Za-z0-9\x93]*[^x94], and so on. Add more characters as per your need.

edited Aug 24 '12 at 06:09

answered Aug 24 '12 at 05:53

Derpy Derp

no, I need to match &lsquo that are not inside of &ldquo and &rdquo, for example, &lsquosample&rsquo &ldquosample text&rdquo. – neo Aug 24 '12 at 06:19

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 24 '12 at 06:41

0

this is the right regex that I am looking at :

(?<!.*&ldquo;)&lsquo;(?!.*&rdquo;)

Thanks!

answered Aug 24 '12 at 06:41

neo

3 Answers3