Capture function and its value using Regex - regex

Question

I have a text that contains the following function calls:
set_name(value:"this is a test");
set_attribute(name:"description", value:"Some
Multi
Line
Value");
And I am trying to capture its data so that I get back:
'name'
or
'attribute'
The value just after "set_"
As well as the inside content:
value:"this is a test"
And
name:"description", value:"Some
Multi
Line
Value"
Respectively
I tried using this regex:
script_([A-Za-z_]+)\s*\(([\S\s]*?)\)
but it will fail if this is the set_attribute value:
set_attribute(name:"description", value:"Some
Multi
(Line)
Value");
Because the (first) ) found there is captured by the regex
I am looking for a regex that would return "attribute" and the content via two group captures:
name:"description", value:"Some
Multi
(Line)
Value"

Answer 1

The desired strings could be extracted with the following regular expression, with the single-line or DOTALL flag is set, causing dot to match line terminators.
(?<=^set_)\w+(?=\()|(?<=\().*?(?=\);$)
The first match is the substring between set_ and (; the second match is the substring between ( and ).
In Ruby, for example, this regex could be used as follows.
str = 'set_name(value:"this is a test");'
r = /(?<=^set_)\w+(?=\()|(?<=\().*?(?=\);$)/m
after_set, inside_parens = str.scan(r)
after_set #=> "name"
inside_parens #=> "value:\"this is a test\""
Note that in Ruby single-line or DOTALL mode (dot matches line terminators) is denoted /m.
Start your engine!.
The regex engine performs the following operations.
/
(?<=^set_) : positive lookbehind asserts match is preceded by `set_` at
the beginning of the string
\w+ : match 1+ word characters
(?=\() : positive lookahead asserts following character is '('
| : or
(?<=\() : positive lookbehind asserts match is preceded by '('
.*? : match 0+ characters, as few as possible
(?=\);$) : positive lookahead asserts match is followed by ');' at
: the end of the line
/m : flag to cause '.' to match line terminators

Answer 2

Each line ends with character semicolon. You could add the character in regex after character ).
set_([A-Za-z_]+)\s*\(([\S\s]*?)\);
Demo

Answer 3

You may use
(?ms)^set_(\w+)\((.*?)\);$
See the regex demo.
Details
(?ms) - multiline (^ and $ match start/end of the line now) and dotall (. matches line break chars) modes are ON
^ - start of a line
set_ - a literal string
(\w+) - Group 1: one or more word chars
\( - a ( char
(.*?) - Group 2: any 0 or more chars, as few as possible
\); - ); substring...
$ - at the end of the line.

Answer 4

Another way to get the values using the 2 capturing groups is to repeatedly match the key:values pairs between the opening and the closing parenthesis in group 2.
^set_([A-Za-z_]+)\s*\((\w+:"[^"]+"(?:, ?\w+:"[^"]+")*)\);
Explanation
^set_ Match set_ form the start of the string
( Capture group 1
[A-Za-z_]+ Match 1+ times any of the listed
) Close group 1
\s*\( Match 0+ whitespace chars and opening (
( Capture group 2
\w+:"[^"]+" Match 1+ word chars, then from opening " till closing "
(?:, ?\w+:"[^"]+")* Optionally repeat the previous pattern preceded by a comma and optional space
) Close group 2
\); Match the closing )
Regex demo