re = /(?(DEFINE)
(?<nestedBrackets> \[ [^][]* (?:\g<nestedBrackets>[^][]*)*+ ] )
)
(?: # two possible entry points
\G(?!\A) # 1. contiguous to a previous match
| # OR
[^[]* \[ # 2. all characters until an opening bracket
)
# all possible characters until "," or the closing bracket:
[^]["]* # all that is not ] [ or "
(?:
\g<nestedBrackets> [^]["]* # possible nested brackets
| # OR
"(?!,") [^]["]* # a quote not followed by ,"
)*+ # repeat as needed
\K # remove all on the left from match result
(?:
"," # match the target
|
] (*SKIP)(*F) # closing bracket: break the contiguity
)/x
str = '[word:"pla pla","pla pla","[other_word:"pla pla","[word:"pla","pla"end word]","pla pla"end other_word]","pla pla","[word:"pla","pla"end word]"end word]","'
subst = '|,|'
result = str.gsub(re, subst)
# Print the result of the substitution
puts result
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Ruby, please visit: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Regexp.html