Issue
Input
age=10 and address='a==c=d' and age==100 and abc = 22
Expected
age = 10 and address='a==c=d' and age==100 and abc = 22
Explanation:
age = 10 now has space, age==100 remains unchanged, abc = 22 becomes abc = 22, content inside single quotes is not changed
Have similar regular expressions that work for other symbols:
For example ,the below expressions replace < but not <= that is not in a single quote
joined = joined.replaceAll("<(?![=])(?=(?:[^\\\']*\\\'[^\\\']*\\\')*[^\\\']*$)", " < ");
joined = joined.replaceAll(">(?![=])(?=(?:[^\\\']*\\\'[^\\\']*\\\')*[^\\\']*$)", " > ");
#example: age <= 10 and address='<==c<d' and age==100 age < 2
Getting undesired result when using the same pattern for ‘=’
E.g. Applying =(?![=])(?=(?:[^\']*\'[^\']*\')*[^\']*$)
on this string -> age = 10 and address='a==c=d' and age==100 , the == is also matched
May check the result in
regex101
Attempted different combinations
the closest I can get so far is
\b(\s+)?={1}(\s+)?\b
this matches = exactly one time with optional space on the sides.
However it targets = inside single quotes as well, which is not wanted.
Solution
https://regex101.com/r/9ySIa2/1
(?<=[^=])=(?=[^=])(?=(?:[^\']*\'[^\']*\')*[^\']*$)
=(?![=])
has been replaced with
(?<=[^=])=(?=[^=])
=(?![=]) matches an equal sign followed by not an equal sign. This means that in ==1, the first = is not matched because it’s followed by an =, but the second is followed by a 1, so it gets matched.
(?<=[^=])=(?=[^=]) matches an equal sign, but only if the character before is not an equal sign ((?<=[^=]) positive lookbehind) as well as if the next character is also not an equal sign ((?=[^=]) positive lookahead)
Answered By – Richard Dodson
Answer Checked By – Clifford M. (BugsFixing Volunteer)