Regex to match only commas not in parentheses?

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Assuming that there can be no nested parens (otherwise, you can’t use a Java Regex for this task because recursive matching is not supported):

Pattern regex = Pattern.compile(
    ",         # Match a comma\n" +
    "(?!       # only if it's not followed by...\n" +
    " [^(]*    #   any number of characters except opening parens\n" +
    " \\)      #   followed by a closing parens\n" +
    ")         # End of lookahead", 
    Pattern.COMMENTS);

This regex uses a negative lookahead assertion to ensure that the next following parenthesis (if any) is not a closing parenthesis. Only then the comma is allowed to match.

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