Split a string ignoring quoted sections

Question

Given a string like this:

a,\"string, with\",various,\"values, and some\",quoted

What is a good algorithm to split this based on

Answer 1

If my language of choice didn't offer a way to do this without thinking then I would initially consider two options as the easy way out:

1. Pre-parse and replace the commas within the string with another control character then split them, followed by a post-parse on the array to replace the control character used previously with the commas.

2. Alternatively split them on the commas then post-parse the resulting array into another array checking for leading quotes on each array entry and concatenating the entries until I reached a terminating quote.

These are hacks however, and if this is a pure 'mental' exercise then I suspect they will prove unhelpful. If this is a real world problem then it would help to know the language so that we could offer some specific advice.