Split string using multiple patterns, where second pattern matches smaller parts of the first

I'm reading special "formatting codes" in a string and am trying to split the string so that I have those formatting codes and the string's text separated.

There are two "types" of formatting codes: "Encoded" hex colors: §x§7§3§7§5§f§f and other codes in the format of §r.

Given the example string: §x§7§3§7§5§f§f§ltest1 §rtest2

I need the larger pattern split as a whole, and then the smaller ones. I can do what I want on those patterns separately, but am having trouble combining them into a single regex. Because the second pattern matches pieces of the first pattern, it's just splitting everything into smaller groups.

I'm trying this:

for (String substr : "§x§7§3§7§5§f§f§ltest1 §rtest2".split("((?<=(§x(§[0-9a-f]){6}))|(?<=§[0-9a-z])|(?=§[0-9a-z]))")) {
  System.out.println(substr);
}

My expected output is:

§x§7§3§7§5§f§f
§l
test1
§r
test

My actual output is:

§x
§7
§3
§7
§5
§f
§f
§l
test1
§r
test2

When I split the expressions up into different split tests, they work, they're just not working together.

Instead of splitting, you could just use this simplified regex for matching:

§x(?:§[0-9a-f]){6}|§[0-9a-z]|[^§\s]+

RegEx Demo

RegEx Details:

• §x(?:§[0-9a-f]){6}: Match text starting with §x and 6 hex characters
• |: OR
• §[0-9a-z]: Match text starting with § and an alphanumeric
• |: OR
• [^§\s]+: Match 1+ non-whitespace and non-§ characters

Code:

final String regex = "§x(?:§[0-9a-f]){6}|§[0-9a-z]|[^§\\s]+";
final String string = "§x§7§3§7§5§f§f§ltest1 §rtest2";

final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex);
final Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(string);

while (matcher.find()) {
    System.out.println( matcher.group(0) );
}

You can use the following regex:

See it working here

 ?((?:§[^§])(?=[^§])|[^§ ]{2,})

How it works:

• ? optionally match the space character
• ((?:§[^§])(?=[^§])|[^§ ]{2,}) capture either of the following:
  • (?:§[^§])(?=[^§]) match the following:
    • (?:§[^§]) match § followed by any character except §
    • (?=[^§]) lookahead ensuring what follows is not § (same as (?!§) but more efficient)
  • [^§ ]{2,} match any character except § or space two or more times

With the substitution of \n$1

Result:

§x§7§3§7§5§f§f
§l
test1
§r
test2