[SOLVED] Regular expression to extract a JSON array

Regular expression to extract a JSON array

I'm trying to use a PCRE regular expression to extract some JSON. I'm using a version of MariaDB which does not have JSON functions but does have REGEX functions.

My string is:

{"device_types":["smartphone"],"isps":["a","B"],"network_types":[],"countries":[],"category":["Jebb","Bush"],"carriers":[],"exclude_carriers":[]}

I want to grab the contents of category. I'd like a matching group that contains 2 items, Jebb and Bush (or however many items are in the array).

I've tried this pattern but it only matches the first occurrence: /(?<=category":\[).([^"]*).*?(?=\])/g

Solution

If the number of items in the array is limited (and manageable), you could define it with a finite number of optional items. Like this one with a maximum of 5 items:

"category":\["([^"]*)"(?:,"([^"]*)"(?:,"([^"]*)"(?:,"([^"]*)"(?:,"([^"]*)")?)?)?)?

regex101 example here.

Regards.