PCRE has a feature called recursive pattern, which can be used to match nested subgroups. For example, consider the "grammar"
Q -> \w | '[' A ';' Q* ','? Q* ']' | '<' A '>'
A -> (Q | ',')*
// to match ^A$.
It can be done in PCRE with the pattern
^((?:,|(\w|\[(?1);(?2)*,?(?2)*\]|<(?1)>))*)$
(Example test case: http://www.ideone.com/L4lHE)
There is no recursive pattern in .NET. Instead, it provides balancing groups for stack-based manipulation for matching simple nested patterns.
Is it possible to convert the above PCRE pattern into .NET Regex style?
(Yes I know it's better not to use regex in for this. It's just a theoretical question.)