Splitting a string by comma while ignoring other commas (not quoted) - php

Question

I am working with an API and getting results via an API. I am having trouble with the delimitation to split the array. Below is the sample example data I am receiving from the API:
name: jo mamma, location: Atlanta, Georgia, description: He is a good
boy, and he is pretty funny, skills: not much at all!
I would like to be able to split like so:
name: jo mamma
location: Atlanta, Georgia
description: He is a good boy, and he is pretty funny
skills: not much at all!
I have tried using the explode function and the regex preg_split.
$exploded = explode(",", $data);
$regex = preg_split("/,\s/", $data);
But not getting the intended results because its splitting also after boy, and after Georgia. Results below:
name: jo mamma
location: Atlanta
Georgia
description: He is a good boy
and he is pretty funny
skills: not much at all!
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

Just do this simple split using Zero-Width Positive Lookahead . (It will split by only , after which there is text like name:).
$regex = preg_split("/,\s*(?=\w+\:)/", $data);
/*
Array
(
[0] => "name: jo mamma"
[1] => "location: Atlanta, Georgia"
[2] => "description: He is a good boy, and he is pretty funny"
[3] => "skills: not much at all!"
)
*/
Learn more on lookahead and lookbehind from here : http://www.regular-expressions.info/lookaround.html

Answer 2

Use this regex:
name:\s(.*),\slocation:\s(.*),\sdescription:\s(.*),\sskills:\s(.*)
$text = 'name: jo mamma, location: Atlanta, Georgia, description: He is a good boy, and he is pretty funny, skills: not much at all!';
preg_match_all('/name:\s(.*),\slocation:\s(.*),\sdescription:\s(.*),\sskills:\s(.*)/', $text, $text_matches);
for ($index = 1; $index < count($text_matches); $index++) {
echo $text_matches[$index][0].'<br />';
}
Output:
jo mamma
Atlanta, Georgia
He is a good boy, and he is pretty funny
not much at all!
Regex101