List rearrangement by rules

Question

The last of this series, an elaboration of a question from yesterday:

I'd like to go from:

startList = {"a-1","a","Z","c","d","e","f","g","Z","a","r","s","a-2",
"q","a","Z","c","d","e","f","a-2","m","Z","p","q","r"}

to:

endList = {{"a-1","a","Z","c","d"},{"a-1","g","Z","a","r"}, 
{"a-2","a","Z","c","d"},{"a-2","m","Z","p","q"}}

So, we make a sublist consisting of one element before "Z", "Z" itself, and the next two elements after each "Z". Then prefix "a-1" in front of each of these sublists, until "a-2" is encountered, at which point "a-2" is prefixed in front of each succeeding sublist, etc.

(The "a-1", "a-2", "a-3" etc. elements can be identified by StringContainsQ[element,"-"], none of the other string elements contain "-".)

Again thanks for your comments.

Answer 1

Join @@ (ReplaceList[# , {beg_, ___, a_, "Z", b_, c_, ___} :> 
  {beg, a, "Z", b, c}] & /@ Split[startList, StringFreeQ[#2, "-"] &])

{{"a-1", "a", "Z", "c", "d"}, {"a-1", "g", "Z", "a", "r"},
{"a-2", "a", "Z", "c", "d"}, {"a-2", "m", "Z", "p", "q"}}

Also:

ReplaceList[startList, {___, beg_?(Not[StringFreeQ[#, "-"]] &), 
 ___?(StringFreeQ[#, "-"] &),  a_, "Z", b_, c_, ___} :> {beg, a, "Z", b, c}]

{{"a-1", "a", "Z", "c", "d"}, {"a-1", "g", "Z", "a", "r"},
{"a-2", "a", "Z", "c", "d"}, {"a-2", "m", "Z", "p", "q"}}