Replace all characters in a String, unless they are within double quotes - regex

Question

I am sadly unfamiliar with regular expressions since I'm not a programmer, but I would guess this problem is easily solvable using regex (I am definitely open to other suggestions, though)
I want to use the split function to split the value of a cell and spread it out over multiple cells. The delimiter is a comma. The problem though is that some users use commas in comments for example, which the Split function uses to split the string mid-comment.
for example a cell containing the value:
0001,"name","address","likes apples, oranges
and plums"
needs to be split into multiple cells saying 0001 "name" "address" and "likes apples, oranges and plums".
my code splits the comment as well, and I want it to ignore the comment or everything else withing double quotes. here is a sample:
Sub SplittingStrings()
Dim wb As Workbook
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim strInput As String
Dim counter As Integer
Dim cell As Variant
Dim splitCount As Integer
Dim splitString() As String
Dim category As Variant
Set wb = ActiveWorkbook
Set ws = wb.ActiveSheet
counter = 1
For Each cell In Range("A1", "A2000")
If cell.Value <> "" Then
strInput = cell.Value
splitCount = 2
splitString = Split(strInput, ",")
For Each category In splitString
Cells(counter, splitCount).Value = category
splitCount = splitCount + 1
Next category
End If
counter = counter + 1
Next cell
End Sub
how do I exclude stuff withing the double quotes from being considered by the split function?

Answer 1

Please give this a try and see if you get the desired output.
Tweak the variables if required.
Sub SplittingStringsUsingRegEx()
Dim lr As Long, c As Long
Dim Rng As Range, cell As Range
Dim RE, Match, Matches
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
lr = Cells(Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row
Set Rng = Range("A1:A" & lr)
Set RE = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
With RE
.Global = True
.Pattern = "\d+|"".+?"""
End With
c = 2
For Each cell In Rng
If RE.test(cell.Value) Then
Set Matches = RE.Execute(cell.Value)
For Each Match In Matches
Cells(cell.Row, c) = Replace(Match, """", "")
c = c + 1
Next Match
End If
c = 2
Next cell
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

Answer 2

Without Regex:
We need to "protect" commas that are encapsulated with double quotes:
Sub ProtectStuff()
Dim i As Long, N As Long, v As String, v2 As String
Dim ProtectMode As Boolean, DQ As String, rep As String
Dim CH As String, arr
DQ = """"
rep = Chr(1)
N = Cells(Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row
For i = 1 To N
v = Cells(i, "A").Value
If v <> "" Then
ProtectMode = False
v2 = ""
For j = 1 To Len(v)
CH = Mid(v, j, 1)
If CH = DQ Then ProtectMode = Not ProtectMode
If CH = "," And ProtectMode Then CH = rep
v2 = v2 & CH
Next j
End If
arr = Split(v2, ",")
j = 2
For Each a In arr
Cells(i, j) = Replace(a, rep, ",")
j = j + 1
Next a
Next i
End Sub

Answer 3

Text to Columns will do what you want, differently than the split function.