Can this be done with regex? -

i have string different length sub-strings split symbol '_' , sub-strings have split in multiple sub-sub-strings...

example:

"_foo-2_bar-12_un[3;1]iver[3]se[3-7]" 

should split in groups this:

"foo-2", "2", "bar-12", "12", "un[3;1]", "3;1", "iv", "er[3]", "3", "se[3-7]", "3-7" 

i've come this:

/(?:((?:(?:\[([a-z0-9;-]+)\])|(?<=_)(?:[a-z0-9]+)|-([0-9]+))+))/ig 

the problem encounter last part. , after finicking around started think whether or not possible. it?

any kind of guidance appreciated.

you can use following regex:

/[^\w_]+(?:\[([^\][]*)]|-([^_]+))/g 

see regex demo

the pattern matches 1+ char alphanumeric sequence ([^\w_]+) followed either [...] substrings having no [ , ] inside (with \[([^\][]*)] - note captures inside [...] group 1) or hyphen followed 1+ characters other _ (and part after - captured group 2).

var re = /[^\w_]+(?:\[([^\][]*)]|-([^_]+))/g;   var str = '_foo-2_bar-12_un[3;1]iver[3]se[3-7]';  var res = [];  while ((m = re.exec(str)) !== null) {     res.push(m[0]);     if (m[1]) {       res.push(m[1]);     } else {       res.push(m[2]);     }  }    document.body.innerhtml = "<pre>" + json.stringify(res, 0, 4) + "</pre>";

in code, match object analyzed @ each iteration: 0th group (the whole match) ias added final array, , if group 1 matched, group 1 added, else, group 2 added resulting array.