php preg_replace comment blocks

Question

the patern is like so

/* comment [comment goes here] */
/* comment please do not delete the lines below */
[I am a special line so I should not be changed ]
/* comment please do not delete the line above */

I would like to remove the comment blocks, but instead of looking for /**/ I would like the comment to be /* comment [] */ where [] is the actual comment.

This is to avoid any text that should include comments.

so here are the conditions of the comment

starts with =>> /* comment
followed by =>> anything
followed by =>> */

I have tried a few things, my regular expression knowledge is = to watching a monkey trying to figure out what his reflection is — Val
– Val, Commented Mar 22, 2011 at 11:59

svoop · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-22 15:22:06Z

3

This removes the comment blocks:

preg_replace('%/\*\s+comment\s+.*?\*/%s', '', $string)

And this get's rid of obsolete whitespace as well:

preg_replace('%/\s*\*\s+comment\s+.*?\*/\s*%s', '', $string)

Here's a test script:

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php

$string = <<<EOS
/* comment [comment goes here] */
/* comment please do not delete the lines below */
[I am a special line so I should not be changed ]
/* comment please do not delete the line above */
EOS;

print $string;
print "\n---\n";
print preg_replace('%/\*\s+comment\s+.*?\*/%s', '', $string);
print "\n---\n";
print preg_replace('%/\s*\*\s+comment\s+.*?\*/\s*%s', '', $string);

?>

Output with PHP 5.3.4:

/* comment [comment goes here] */
/* comment please do not delete the lines below */
[I am a special line so I should not be changed ]
/* comment please do not delete the line above */
---


[I am a special line so I should not be changed ]

---
[I am a special line so I should not be changed ]

edited Mar 22, 2011 at 15:22

answered Mar 22, 2011 at 12:00

svoop

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2 Comments

svoop Over a year ago

@val: What version of PHP are you using? Both snippets work as tested on PHP 5.3.4. (I've edited the answer and added a complete test script with output.)

svoop Over a year ago

@val: Sorry, I misinterpreted the square brackets in your question. Apparently, they are not part of the comment but you use them to mark the placeholder. I've fixed the patterns above accordingly.

Val · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-22 12:36:29Z

0

Seems to do the job :)

preg_replace("(\\/\\*[\s]*?comment[\\d\\D]*?[\s]*?\\*\\/)",'',$str)

How I found out ?

well this website is just tooooo amazing :)

http://txt2re.com/index.php3

answered Mar 22, 2011 at 12:36

Val

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1 Comment

svoop Over a year ago

However, you can tell it's a generated expression. [\s]*?: The square brackets are obsolete and the question mark (greediness) as well as a character follows. [\\d\\D]*: This means "any digit or non digit", so it's equivalent to .*. It may work, but it's hard to read.

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