Finding the `/` character as a separator using regexp as for phrases wrapped and not wrapped by other `/` characters

Question

I'm trying to create a regexp that can find occurrences of / from a string however the following rules must be satisfied:

• / is a separator between each string, e.g: /string1/string2/string3/
• The / is also a separator between regular expressions like /regexp1//regexp2//regexp3/

The goal is to find all occurrences of the separator / that satisfy such a condition

As a result, I would like to get the separators between the following phrases

• string1
• string2
• string3
• /regexp1/
• /regexp2/
• /regexp3/
• string4

/string1/string2/string3//regexp1///regexp2///regexp3//string4/

Currently I prepared the following regexp, but unfortunately it doesn't work as I expect, because it doesn't handle when there are 2 regexps next to each other. Does anyone have any advice how to overcome such case?

((?<=\/)\/(?=\/)|(?<!\/)\/(?!\/)|(?<=\w)\/(?=\/)|(?<=\/)\/(?=\w)|\/$)

Answer 1

You may use this regex with an alternation and grab capture group #1:

(?<=\/)(\/[^\/]+\/|[^\/]+)(?:\/|$)

RegEx Demo

RegEx Details:

• (?<=\/): Assert that previous character is /
• ( Start capture group #1
  • \/: Match a /
  • [^/]+: Match 1+ non-/` characters
  • \/: Match a /
  • |: OR
  • [^\/]+: Match 1+ non-/ characters
• ): End capture group #1
• (?:\/|$): Match a / or end position