I'm trying to preg_match a word, beginning with an @, not contained in sqaure brackets

Question

That is to say, alice should be matched, but bob shouldn't in the following

Hello @alice and [@bob](...)

I can match the names themselves with the following simple regex: /\@([\w]+)/.

Does anyone know how to make the regex not match bob?

Answer 1

Group index 1 contains the characters you want.

Use a negative looahead.

@(?![^\[\]]*])(\w+)

DEMO

OR

Through alteration,

\[.*?\]|@(\w+)

DEMO

OR

Through PCRE verb (*SKIP)(*F)

\[.*?\](*SKIP)(*F)|@(\w+)

DEMO