java - Extract attributes of an string -

i got deal here problem, caused dirty design. list of string , want parse attributes out of it. unfortunately, can't change source, these string created.

example:

string s = "type=info, languagecode=en-gb, url=http://www.stackoverflow.com, ref=1, info=text, may contain kind of chars., deactivated=false" 

now want extract attributes type, languagecode, url, ref, info , deactivated.

the problem here field info, text not limited quote mark. commas may occur in field, can't use comma @ end of string, find out ends.

additional, strings not contain attributes. type, info , deactivated present, rest optional.

any suggestions how can solve problem?

assuming order of elements fixed write solution using regex one

string s = "type=info, languagecode=en-gb, url=http://www.stackoverflow.com, ref=1, info=text, may contain kind of chars., deactivated=false";  string regex = //type, info , deactivated present           "type=(?<type>.*?)"         + "(?:, languagecode=(?<languagecode>.*?))?"//optional group         + "(?:, url=(?<url>.*?))?"//optional group         + "(?:, ref=(?<rel>.*?))?"//optional group         + ", info=(?<info>.*?)"         + ", deactivated=(?<deactivated>.*?)"; pattern p = pattern.compile(regex); matcher m = p.matcher(s); if(m.matches()){     system.out.println("type -> "+m.group("type"));     system.out.println("languagecode -> "+m.group("languagecode"));     system.out.println("url -> "+m.group("url"));     system.out.println("rel -> "+m.group("rel"));     system.out.println("info -> "+m.group("info"));     system.out.println("deactivated -> "+m.group("deactivated")); } 

output:

type -> info languagecode -> en-gb url -> http://www.stackoverflow.com rel -> 1 info -> text, may contain kind of chars. deactivated -> false 

---

edit: version2 regex searching oneofpossiblekeys=value value ends with:

• , oneofpossiblekeys=
• or has end of string after (represented $).

code:

string s = "type=info, languagecode=en-gb, url=http://www.stackoverflow.com, ref=1, info=text, may contain kind of chars., deactivated=false";  string[] possiblekeys = {"type","languagecode","url","ref","info","deactivated"}; string keysstrregex = string.join("|", possiblekeys); //above contain type|languagecode|url|ref|info|deactivated  string regex = "(?<key>\\b(?:"+keysstrregex+")\\b)=(?<value>.*?(?=, (?:"+keysstrregex+")=|$))";     // (?<key>\b(?:type|languagecode|url|ref|info|deactivated)\b)     // =     // (?<value>.*?(?=, (?:type|languagecode|url|ref|info|deactivated)=|$))system.out.println(regex);  pattern p = pattern.compile(regex); matcher m = p.matcher(s);   while(m.find()){     system.out.println(m.group("key")+" -> "+m.group("value")); } 

output:

type -> info languagecode -> en-gb url -> http://www.stackoverflow.com ref -> 1 info -> text, may contain kind of chars. deactivated -> false