i search for a regex to split the following string: aaa[bbb,ccc[ddd,{eee:1,mmm:999}],nnn[0,3]] aaa[bbb,ccc[ddd,{eee:1, mmm:[123,555]}],nnn[0,3]] aaa[bbb, ccc[ddd, ddd],nnn[0,3]] aaa[bbb,ddd[0,3]] by '[' or ']' or ',' unless the ',' is in '{}'. As example: split 'aaa[bbb,ccc[ddd,' to aaa, bbb, ccc, ddd is allow but not {eee:1,mmm:999}. the result: aaa, bbb, ccc, ddd, {eee:1,mmm:999}, nnn, 0, 3 aaa, bbb, ccc, ddd, {eee:1, mmm:[123,555]}], nnn, 0, 3 aaa, bbb, ccc, ddd, ddd, nnn, 0, 3 aaa, bbb, ddd, 0, 3 i have read meany other questions but i cant modifie the regex's there are post to do this what i want. the target language for the expression is javascript.