How to split a string by commas positioned outside of parenthesis?

Question

I got a string of such format:

\"Wilbur Smith (Billy, son of John), Eddie Murphy (John), Elvis Presley, Jane Doe (Jane Doe)\"

so basicly i

Answer 1

My answer will not use regex.

I think simple character scanner with state "in_actor_name" should work. Remember then state "in_actor_name" is terminated either by ')' or by comma in this state.

My try:

s = 'Wilbur Smith (Billy, son of John), Eddie Murphy (John), Elvis Presley, Jane Doe (Jane Doe)'

in_actor_name = 1
role = ''
name = ''
for c in s:
    if c == ')' or (c == ',' and in_actor_name):
        in_actor_name = 1
        name = name.strip()
        if name:
            print "%s: %s" % (name, role)
        name = ''
        role = ''
    elif c == '(':
        in_actor_name = 0
    else:
        if in_actor_name:
            name += c
        else:
            role += c
if name:
    print "%s: %s" % (name, role)

Output:

Wilbur Smith: Billy, son of John
Eddie Murphy: John
Elvis Presley: 
Jane Doe: Jane Doe