Regex to replace word except in comments - regex

Question

How can I modify my regex so that it will ignore the comments in the pattern in a language that doesn't support lookbehind?
My regex pattern is:
\b{Word}\b(?=([^"\\]*(\\.|"([^"\\]*\\.)*[^"\\]*"))*[^"]*$)
\b{Word}\b : Whole word, {word} is replaced iteratively for the vocab list
(?=([^""\](\.|""([^""\]\.)[^""\]""))[^""]$) : Don't replace anything inside of quotes
My goal is to lint variables and words so that they always have the same case. However I do not want to lint any words in a comment. (The IDE sucks and there is no other option)
Comments in this language are prefixed by an apostrophe. Sample code follows
' This is a comment
This = "Is not" ' but this is
' This is a comment, what is it's value?
Object.value = 1234 ' Set value
value = 123
Basically I want the linter to take the above code and say for the word "value" update it to:
' This is a comment
This = "Is not" ' but this is
' This is a comment, what is it's value?
Object.Value = 1234 ' Set value
Value = 123
So that all code based "Value" are updated but not anything in double quotes or in a comment or part of another word such as valueadded wouldn't be touched.
I've tried several solutions but haven't been able to get it to work.
['.*] : Not preceeding an apostrophy
(?<!\s*') : BackSearch not with any spaces with apoostrophy
(?<!\s*') : Second example seemed incorrect but this won't work as the language doesn't support backsearches
Anybody have any ideas how I can alter my pattern so that I don't edit commented variables
VBA
Sub TestSO()
Dim Code As String
Dim Expected As String
Dim Actual As String
Dim Words As Variant
Code = "item = object.value ' Put item in value" & vbNewLine & _
"some.item <> some.otheritem" & vbNewLine & _
"' This is a comment, what is it's value?" & vbNewLine & _
"Object.value = 1234 ' Set value" & vbNewLine & _
"value = 123" & vbNewLine
Expected = "Item = object.Value ' Put item in value" & vbNewLine & _
"some.Item <> some.otheritem" & vbNewLine & _
"' This is a comment, what is it's value?" & vbNewLine & _
"Object.Value = 1234 ' Set value" & vbNewLine & _
"Value = 123" & vbNewLine
Words = Array("Item", "Value")
Actual = SOLint(Words, Code)
Debug.Print Actual = Expected
Debug.Print "CODE: " & vbNewLine & Code
Debug.Print "Actual: " & vbNewLine & Actual
Debug.Print "Expected: " & vbNewLine & Expected
End Sub
Public Function SOLint(ByVal Words As Variant, ByVal FileContents As String) As String
Const NotInQuotes As String = "(?=([^""\\]*(\\.|""([^""\\]*\\.)*[^""\\]*""))*[^""]*$)"
Dim RegExp As Object
Dim Regex As String
Dim Index As Variant
Set RegExp = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
With RegExp
.Global = True
.IgnoreCase = True
End With
For Each Index In Words
Regex = "[('*)]\b" & Index & "\b" & NotInQuotes
RegExp.Pattern = Regex
FileContents = RegExp.Replace(FileContents, Index)
Next Index
SOLint = FileContents
End Function

Answer 1

As discussed in the comments above:
((?:\".*\")|(?:'.*))|\b(v)(alue)\b
3 Parts to this regex used with alternation.
A non-capturing group for text within double quotes, as we dont need that.
A non-capturing group for text starting with single quote
Finally the string "value" is split into two parts (v) and (value) because while replacing we can use \U($2) to convert v to V and rest as is so \E$3 where \U - converts to upper case and \E - turns off the case.
\b \b - word boundaries are used to avoid any stand-alone text which is not part of setting a value.
https://regex101.com/r/mD9JeR/8