How to skip past an "=" then capture all comma-delimited words - regex

Question

I am doing this now with Instr/Split but have found regex in general to be much faster (this is an inner loop with 100K+ tests per run).
The general form is:
word0 = word1, word2, word3...
There are one or more words to the right of =. A word is defined as [\w.-]+. I need to allow for whitespace at any point as well. The = is required.
I want to return just word1, word2 and word3 in the Matches collection.
The = is what has me stumped. I either get one match or none depending on the pattern.
Here is some test code. Change RE.Pattern on line 17 to test.
Option Explicit
Test1 "word1, word2",""
Test1 " word0 = word1, word.2 , word3.qrs_t-1", "word1 word.2 word3.qrs_t-1"
Test1 "word0=word1", "word1"
WScript.Quit
Sub Test1(TestString, CorrectOutput)
Dim RE, Matches, Answer
Dim i, j
Set RE = New RegExp
RE.Global = True
RE.Pattern = "=([\w.-]+)"
Set Matches = RE.Execute(TestString)
Answer = "Input: " & vbTab & TestString & vbLf
Answer = Answer & "Correct:" & vbTab & CorrectOutput & vbLf
Answer = Answer & "Actual: " & vbTab
For i = 0 To Matches.Count -1
If i > 0 Then
Answer = Answer & " "
End If
Answer = Answer & Matches(i).value
Next
MsgBox Answer
End Sub

Answer 1

Use the following regular expression to extract the the substring with the wordlist from the input string:
str = "..."
Set re = New RegExp
re.Pattern = "^.*?=((?:[^,]+)(?:,[^,]+)*)"
re.Global = True
Set m = re.Execute(str)
Then use a second expression to remove the separating commas and mangle the whitespace:
Set re2 = New RegExp
re2.Pattern = "\s*,\s*"
re2.Global = True
wordlist = ""
If m.Count > 0 Then
wordlist = Trim(re2.Replace(m(0).SubMatches(0), " "))
End If
WScript.Echo wordlist

Answer 2

Description
Give this a try, it'll:
require a value before the equals sign
require an equals sign
require at least 1 value after the equals sign
return each of the 1 to 3 comma delimited chunks of text
trim spaces off all returned values
(?:^\s*?(\b[^=]*?\b)(?:\s{0,}[=]\s{0,}))(?:(['"]?)(\b[^,]*\b)\2\s*?)(?:$|(?:[,]\s*?(['"]?)(\b[^,]*\b)\4\s*?)(?:$|[,]\s*?(['"]?)(\b[^,]*\b)\6\s*?$))
(Right click the image and select view in new tab or new window for full size)
Groups
group 0 matches the full string if it's valid
groups 1-7
value before the equals sign
Quote delimiter if there was one for value 1
first value in the list of values
Quote delimiter if there was one for value 2
second value in the list of values
Quote delimiter if there was on for value 3
third value in the list of values
VB.NET Code Example to demonstrate the that the regex works
Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions
Module Module1
Sub Main()
Dim sourcestring as String = "replace with your source string"
Dim re As Regex = New Regex("(?:^\s*?(\b[^=]*?\b)(?:\s{0,}[=]\s{0,}))(?:(['"]?)(\b[^,]*\b)\2\s*?)(?:$|(?:[,]\s*?(['"]?)(\b[^,]*\b)\4\s*?)(?:$|[,]\s*?(['"]?)(\b[^,]*\b)\6\s*?$))",RegexOptions.IgnoreCase OR RegexOptions.Multiline OR RegexOptions.Singleline)
Dim mc as MatchCollection = re.Matches(sourcestring)
Dim mIdx as Integer = 0
For each m as Match in mc
For groupIdx As Integer = 0 To m.Groups.Count - 1
Console.WriteLine("[{0}][{1}] = {2}", mIdx, re.GetGroupNames(groupIdx), m.Groups(groupIdx).Value)
Next
mIdx=mIdx+1
Next
End Sub
End Module
$matches Array:
(
[0] => Array
(
[0] => word0 = word1, word.2 , word3.qrs_t-1
)
[1] => Array
(
[0] => word0
)
[2] => Array
(
[0] =>
)
[3] => Array
(
[0] => word1
)
[4] => Array
(
[0] =>
)
[5] => Array
(
[0] => word.2
)
[6] => Array
(
[0] =>
)
[7] => Array
(
[0] => word3.qrs_t-1
)
)