Regex nested parentheses

Solution 1:

You can use this:

(?>\w+\.)?\w+\((?>\((?<DEPTH>)|\)(?<-DEPTH>)|[^()]+)*\)(?(DEPTH)(?!))|\w+

With your example you obtain:

0 => username
1 => TB_PEOPLE.fields(FirstName,LastName,TB_PHONE.fields(num_phone1, num_phone2))
2 => password

Explanation:

(?>\w+\.)? \w+ \(    # the opening parenthesis (with the function name)
(?>                  # open an atomic group
    \(  (?<DEPTH>)   # when an opening parenthesis is encountered,
                     #  then increment the stack named DEPTH
  |                  # OR
    \) (?<-DEPTH>)   # when a closing parenthesis is encountered,
                     #  then decrement the stack named DEPTH
  |                  # OR
    [^()]+           # content that is not parenthesis
)*                   # close the atomic group, repeat zero or more times
\)                   # the closing parenthesis
(?(DEPTH)(?!))       # conditional: if the stack named DEPTH is not empty
                     #  then fail (ie: parenthesis are not balanced)

You can try it with this code:

string input = "username,TB_PEOPLE.fields(FirstName,LastName,TB_PHONE.fields(num_phone1, num_phone2)),password";
string pattern = @"(?>\w+\.)?\w+\((?>\((?<DEPTH>)|\)(?<-DEPTH>)|[^()]+)*\)(?(DEPTH)(?!))|\w+";
MatchCollection matches = Regex.Matches(input, pattern);
foreach (Match match in matches)
{
    Console.WriteLine(match.Groups[0].Value);
}