I am trying to write a regular expression which finds all the comments in text.
For example all between /* */.
Example:
/* Hello */
When I do this:/\*.*\*/, it behaves odd and nothing is shown. What is wrong with it?
EDIT: The comments can be spread across multiple lines
Unlike the example posted above, you were trying to match comments that spanned multiple lines. By default, . does not match a line break. Thus you have to enable multi-line mode in the regex to match multi-line comments.
Also, you probably need to use .*? instead of .*. Otherwise it will make the largest match possible, which will be everything between the first open comment and the last close comment.
I don't know how to enable multi-line matching mode in Sublime Text 2. I'm not sure it is available as a mode. However, you can insert a line break into the actual pattern by using CTRL + Enter. So, I would suggest this alternative:
/\*(.|\n)*?\*/
If Sublime Text 2 doesn't recognize the \n, you could alternatively use CTRL + Enter to insert a line break in the pattern, in place of \n.
I encountered this problem several years ago and wrote an entire article about it.
If you don't have access to non-greedy matching (not all regex libraries support non-greedy) then you should use this regex:
/\*([^*]|[\r\n]|(\*+([^*/]|[\r\n])))*\*+/
If you do have access to non-greedy matching then you can use:
/\*(.|[\r\n])*?\*/
Also, keep in mind that regular expressions are just a heuristic for this problem. Regular expressions don't support cases in which something appears to be a comment to the regular expression but actually isn't:
someString = "An example comment: /* example */";
// The comment around this code has been commented out.
// /*
some_code();
// */
Just want to add for HTML Comments is is this
\<!--(.|\n)*?-->
Just an additionnal note about using regex to remove comments inside a programming language file.
Warning!
Doing this you must not forget the case where you have the string /* or */ inside a string in the code - like var string = "/*"; - (we never know if you parse a huge code that is not yours)!
So the best is to parse the document with a programming language and have a boolean to save the state of an open string (and ignore any match inside open string).
Again a string delimited by " can contain a \" so pay attention with the regex!
You cannot write a regular expression that would be able to correctly find all comments, or even one type of comments - single-line or multiline.
Regular expressions can only provide a partial match, one that would would cover perhaps 90% of all cases, but that's it.
The syntax for regular expression is so complex, it is only possible to identify them correctly in 100% of cases by doing a full expression evaluation, which in turn is based on tokenizing the code. The latter is a huge task, which is implemented by all AST parsers today. See AST Explorer
Only a proper-written AST parser can tell you precisely where all regular expressions are located in your code. You would have to write a parser then based on that.
Or, you could use one of the existing libraries that already do all that, like decomment.
RegEx examples where any head-on approach is going to stumble, being unable to tell a regular expression from a comment block:
/\// - it will think this reg-ex is a single-line comment
/\/*/ - it will think this reg-ex opens a multi-line comment
The answer which user1919238 wrote works. Just corroborating that here, although the many upvotes probably do give you a clue.
It got rid of all these annoying block comments, put here just to show the usefulness/thank user1919238 for saving time:
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#0070f3;\n}\n.checkboxcard oppositebox {\n  color: white;\n  border-color: white;\n}\n.checkboxcard oppositebox:hover,\n.checkboxcard oppositebox:focus,\n.checkboxcard oppositebox:active {\n  color: #0070f3;\n  border-color: #0070f3;\n  font-size: 2rem;\n}\n.grid {\n  display: flex;\n  align-items: center;\n  justify-content: center;\n  flex-wrap: wrap;\n  max-width: 800px;\n  margin-top: 3rem;\n}\n.stack {\n  display: -moz-stack;\n  align-items: center;\n  justify-content: center;\n  flex-wrap: nowrap;\n  max-width: 800px;\n  margin-top: 3rem;\n}\n.box {\n  display: -moz-box;\n  align-items: center;\n  justify-content: center;\n  flex-wrap: nowrap;\n  max-width: 800px;\n  margin-top: 3rem;\n}\n.popup {\n  display: -moz-popup;\n  align-items: center;\n  justify-content: center;\n  flex-wrap: nowrap;\n  max-width: 800px;\n  margin-top: 3rem;\n}\n.container {\n  min-height: 100vh;\n  padding: 0 0.5rem;\n  display: flex;\n  flex-direction: column;\n  justify-content: center;\n  align-items: center;\n}\n\n.main {\n  padding: 5rem 0;\n  flex: 1;\n  display: flex;\n  flex-direction: column;\n  justify-content: center;\n  align-items: center;\n}\n\n.footer {\n  width: 100%;\n  height: 100px;\n  border-top: 1px solid #eaeaea;\n  display: flex;\n  justify-content: center;\n  align-items: center;\n}\n\n.footer img {\n  margin-left: 0.5rem;\n}\n\n.footer a {\n  display: flex;\n  justify-content: center;\n  align-items: center;\n}\n\n.title a {\n  color: #0070f3;\n  text-decoration: none;\n}\n\n.title a:hover,\n.title a:focus,\n.title a:active {\n  text-decoration: underline;\n}\n\n.title {\n  margin: 0;\n  line-height: 1.15;\n  font-size: 4rem;\n}\n\n.title,\n.description {\n  text-align: center;\n}\n.description {\n  line-height: 1.5;\n  font-size: 1.5rem;\n}\n.descriptleft {\n  line-height:1.5;\n  font-size:1.5rem;\n  text-align:center;\n  text-justify: left;\n}\n.code {\n  background: #fafafa;\n  border-radius: 5px;\n  padding: 0.75rem;\n  font-size: 1.1rem;\n  font-family: Menlo, Monaco, Lucida Console, Liberation Mono, DejaVu Sans Mono,\n    Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, Courier New, monospace;\n}\n\n.grid {\n  display: flex;\n  align-items: center;\n  justify-content: center;\n  flex-wrap: wrap;\n  max-width: 800px;\n  margin-top: 3rem;\n}\n.correct {\n  margin: 1rem;\n  flex-basis: 45%;\n  padding: 1.5rem;\n  text-align: left;\n  color: inherit;\n  text-decoration: none;\n  text-emphasis: bold;\n  border: 1px solid lightgreen;\n  border-radius: 10px;\n  transition: color 0.15s ease, border-color 0.15s ease;\n}\n.correct:hover,\n.correct:focus,\n.correct:active {\n  color: green;\n  border-color: green;\n}\n.correct h3 {\n  margin: 0 0 1rem 0;\n  font-size: 1.5rem;\n}\n\n.correct p {\n  margin: 0;\n  font-size: 1.25rem;\n  line-height: 1.5;\n}\n.ok {\n  margin: 1rem;\n  flex-basis: 45%;\n  padding: 1.5rem;\n  text-align: left;\n  color: inherit;\n  text-decoration: none;\n  text-emphasis: bold;\n  border: 1px solid yellow;\n  border-radius: 10px;\n  transition: color 0.15s ease, border-color 0.15s ease;\n}\n.ok:hover,\n.ok:focus,\n.ok:active {\n  color: orange;\n  border-color: orange;\n}\n.ok h3 {\n  margin: 0 0 1rem 0;\n  font-size: 1.5rem;\n}\n\n.ok p {\n  margin: 0;\n  font-size: 1.25rem;\n  line-height: 1.5;\n}\n\n.card {\n  margin: 1rem;\n  flex-basis: 45%;\n  padding: 1.5rem;\n  text-align: left;\n  color: inherit;\n  text-decoration: none;\n  border: 1px solid #eaeaea;\n  border-radius: 10px;\n  transition: color 0.15s ease, border-color 0.15s ease;\n}\n\n.card:hover,\n.card:focus,\n.card:active {\n  color: #0070f3;\n  border-color: #0070f3;\n}\n.card h3 {\n  margin: 0 0 1rem 0;\n  font-size: 1.5rem;\n}\n\n.card p {\n  margin: 0;\n  font-size: 1.25rem;\n  line-height: 1.5;\n}\n\n.logo {\n  height: 1em;\n}\n.space2 {\n  line-height:2;\n}\n._215 {\n  line-height:2;\n  font-size: 1.25rem;\n  text-align: center;\n}\n.cyan {\n  color:cyan;\n}\n.magenta {\n  color:magenta;\n}\n.green {\n  color:green;\n}\n.red {\n  color:red;\n}\n.lcoral {\n  color: lightcoral;\n}\n.lsalmon{\n  color: lightsalmon\n}\n.greenyellow{\n  color: greenyellow;\n}\n.skyblue {\n  color:skyblue;\n}\n.blue {\n  color:blue;\n}\n\n\n\n\n@media (max-width: 600px) {\n  .grid {\n    width: 100%;\n    flex-direction: column;\n  }\n}\n"],"sourceRoot":""} */
if you want to replace the obnoxious comment from flutter main.dart,
Press cmd +r on mac or cntrl+ r on windows,
type //.* into the box above, leave the box below empty
click .* on the replace dialog, to activate regex,
then click on replace all. this will remove all your comments, you can do this if you want to remove all comments in any file in a flutter.
Additional, to reformat the main.dart
press cmd+a on mac and cntrl+a on windows,
then press cmd+alt(option)+l or cntrl+alt+l, this will reformat the code.
I will attach a picture of the main. dart, the green .* at the top of the page is what you will press to activate the regex.
Related
I am in need of a Sublime Text 2 friendly regex that would allow me to search for all comments within a file.
The comments are all following this basic structure /* <anything> */
Thanks for taking the time to help :)
Search for:
(?s)/\*.*?\*/
This allows you to match comments that spreads over multiple lines.
The (?s) turns on "single line" mode, which makes . matches any character without exception (by default, . excludes line separators).
This assumes that there is no /* or */ inside a string literal.
Or if you want a bullet-proof solution, you may want to take a look at this question:
Can we make use of syntax highlighting feature to remove all comments from a source file in SublimeText?
Something like this should work:
\/\*.+?\*\/
I'm not super-familiar with Sublime Text, but this would work in Notepad++, and I believe the regex implementation is basically the same. If I'm wrong, feel free to let me know.
Edit: Per CAustin's helpful tip, you can also just do this (without the escaping of the forward slashes):
/\*.+?\*/
I think this code is better:
\/\*[^(?:\*\/)]*\*\/
I'm playing around with RegEx but I'm by no means a pro and I can't quite get this to work properly in http://www.regexr.com/
(Being in a rush doesn't help ...)
I have two dozen ".ST" files, basically PLC code which seems to be similar to C syntax. So all the comments are // or (* ... *)
I'm a translator and I'm supposed to translate ONLY the comments, so my thought was to use Find/Replace in Notepad++ and find everything which was NOT a comment, replace it with blank, in order to, in the end, have a document with only comments. So I'm not sure what to do with a RegEx that matches comments, because I don't want to delete those and can't "replace" it with anything... Make any sense???
Thanks so much for your help!
Simple answer
Not what you asked for, but I believe this is what you want to do. All you need is catch the comments and remove them. To do that:
~(?<!\\)//[^\n\r]*|(?<!\\)\(\*.*?(?<!\\)\*\)~sg
will select all the text following // on the line, and all text (multiline) enclosed in (* *). Afterwards you just need to replaced all selection with the empty string "".
For info, (?<! ) patterns are look behind: they're here to make sure the comment's limits aren't escaped. \//I wanna keep this code shouldn't be matched, code (*foo\*)bar*) should select (*foo\*)bar*).
Crazy overkill [shouldn't use]
For the record, and because it is too damn tempting to go for the monstrous regex when there's a simple obvious answer, and because I didn't saw that before way too long... You shouldn't use this.
~(?:^//.*$|\(\*.*?\*\)|([^(\n]+)|(\())~mg
might catch what you you want in variables \1 and \2.
^//.*$ catches lines beginning with // (though you might want to also catch the code before the // in a line resembling cool code //this was cool code)
\(\*.*?\*\) catches anything between (* *) (though not if there's a newline... You could use (?s:\(\*.*?\*\)) if your regex flavor supports it. And it probably isn't speed-optimized)
([^(\n]+]) looks for (and selects) anything ON THIS LINE that isn't an opening parenthesis. This means that multiline code, unsprinkled with comments, will be cut into lines. You may change this behavior with something like (?s:((?:(?!\n/|\().)+)).
(\() matches the open parenthesis that stopped the previous pattern, only if it isn't the beginning of a (* comment.
You can see it in action here: http://regex101.com/r/aX6sF7, but I do believe it can be greatly simplified.
This will match any line starting with //:
^\/\/.*$
This will match anything between * and *:
\*[^\*]*\*
I would like to remove hundreds on onmouseover events from my code. the evt all pass different variables and I want to be able to use dreamwaever to find and replace all the strings with nothing.
Here is an example
onmouseover="parent.mv_mapTipOver(evt,'Wilson');"
onmouseover="parent.mv_mapTipOver(evt,'Harris');"
onmouseover="parent.mv_mapTipOver(evt,'Walker');"
I want to run a search that will identify all of these and replace/remove them.
I have tried seemingly infinite permutations of things like:
onmouseover="parent.mv_mapTipOver(evt,'[^']');"
or
onmouseover="parent.mv_mapTipOver(evt,'[^']);"
or
onmouseover="parent.mv_mapTipOver(evt,[^']);"
or
onmouseover="parent.mv_mapTipOver(evt,'[^']+');"
And many more. I cannot find the regular expression that will work.
Any/all help would be appreciated.
Thanks a ton!
"." and "(" have special meaning in regular expressions, so you need to escape them:
onmouseover="parent\.mv_mapTipOver\(evt,'[^']+'\);"
I'm not sure if this is correct dreamweaver regex syntax, but this stuff is standard enough.
Try this one:
onmouseover="parent\.mv_mapTipOver\(evt,'.+?'\);"
And see it in action here.
When using reg expressions you have to be very careful about how you handle white space. For example the following piece of code will not get caught by most of the reg expressions mentioned so far because of the space after the comma and equals sign, despite the fact that it is most likely valid syntax in the language you are using.
onmouseover= "parent.mv_mapTipOver(evt, 'Walker');"
In order to create regexp that ignore white space you must insert /s* everywhere in the regexp that white space might occur.
The following regexp should work even if there is additional white space in your code.
onmouseover\s*=\s*"parent\.mv_mapTipOver\(\s*evt\s*,\s*'[A-Za-z]+'\s*\);"
I have statements like this all over my code:
LogWrite (String1,
String2,
L"=======format string======",
...
);
I want to change each of these to:
LogWrite (String1,
String2,
L"format string",
...
);
I'm trying to write the regexp required to do this using the Emacs function query-replace-regexp, but not much success yet. Help please!
UPDATE:
1) In case it is not clear, this question is emacs specific.
2) I would like to match the entire code chunk starting from Log... ending at );
3) I used the following reg-exp to match the code chunk:
L.*\n.*\n.*==.*;
I used re-builder to match this regexp. the \n is used because I found that otherwise emacs would stop matching at the new line. The problem is that I don't know how to select the format string and save it to use it in the replace regexp - hence the ==.* part in the regexp. That needs to be modified to save the format string.
If you don't have multiple (or escaped) double quotes in those format string lines, you can
//replace
L"=+(.*)=+"
//with
L"\1"
Update: Removed the lazy quantifier (thanks #tim). Make sure that the regex is not multiline; the greedy * will lead to pretty bad results if . matches new lines
A great tool to figure out emacs regular expressions is:
M-x re-builder
A brief description from the documentation:
When called up re-builder' attaches
itself to the current buffer which
becomes its target buffer, where all
the matching is done. The active
window is split so you have a view on
the data while authoring the RE. If
the edited expression is valid the
matches in the target buffer are
marked automatically with colored
overlays (for non-color displays see
below) giving you feedback over the
extents of the matched (sub)
expressions. The (non-)validity is
shown only in the modeline without
throwing the errors at you. If you
want to know the reason why RE Builder
considers it as invalid call
reb-force-update' ("\C-c\C-u") which
should reveal the error.
It comes built into Emacs (since 21)
And for the syntax of Emacs regular expressions, you can read these info pages:
Syntax of Regular Expressions
Backslash in Regular Expressions
/={7}(.*)={6}/\1/
this should do.
I'm using Notepad++ to do some text replacement in a 5453-row language file. The format of the file's rows is:
variable.name = Variable Value Over Here, that''s for sure, Really
Double apostrophe is intentional.
I need to convert the value to sentence case, except for the words "Here" and "Really" which are proper and should remain capitalized. As you can see, the case within the value is typically mixed to begin with.
I've worked on this for a little while. All I've got so far is:
(. )([A-Z])(.+)
which seems to at least select the proper strings. The replacement piece is where I'm struggling.
Find: (. )([A-Z])(.+)
Replace: \1\U\2\L\3
In Notepad++ 6.0 or better (which comes with built-in PCRE support).
Regex replacement cannot execute function (like capitalization) on matches. You'd have to script that, e.g. in PHP or JavaScript.
Update: See Jonas' answer.
I built myself a Web page called Text Utilities to do that sort of things:
paste your text
go in "Find, regexp & replace" (or press Ctrl+Shift+F)
enter your regex (mine would be ^(.*?\=\s*\w)(.*)$)
check the "^$ match line limits" option
choose "Apply JS function to matches"
add arguments (first is the match, then sub patterns), here s, start, rest
change the return statement to return start + rest.toLowerCase();
The final function in the text area looks like this:
return function (s, start, rest) {
return start + rest.toLowerCase();
};
Maybe add some code to capitalize some words like "Really" and "Here".
In Notepad++ you can use a plugin called PythonScript to do the job. If you install the plugin, create a new script like so:
Then you can use the following script, replacing the regex and function variables as you see fit:
import re
#change these
regex = r"[a-z]+sym"
function = str.upper
def perLine(line, num, total):
for match in re.finditer(regex, line):
if match:
s, e = match.start(), match.end()
line = line[:s] + function(line[s:e]) + line[e:]
editor.replaceWholeLine(num, line)
editor.forEachLine(perLine)
This particular example works by finding all the matches in a particular line, then applying the function each each match. If you need multiline support, the Python Script "Conext-Help" explains all the functions offered including pymlsearch/pymlreplace functions defined under the 'editor' object.
When you're ready to run your script, go to the file you want it to run on first, then go to "Scripts >" in the Python Script menu and run yours.
Note: while you will probably be able to use notepad++'s undo functionality if you mess up, it might be a good idea to put the text in another file first to verify it works.
P.S. You can 'find' and 'mark' every occurrence of a regular expression using notepad++'s built-in find dialog, and if you could select them all you could use TextFX's "Characters->UPPER CASE" functionality for this particular problem, but I'm not sure how to go from marked or found text to selected text. But, I thought I would post this in case anyone does...
Edit: In Notepad++ 6.0 or higher, you can use "PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) Search/Replace" (source: http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/notepad-plus/?title=Regular_Expressions) So this could have been solved using a regex like (. )([A-z])(.+) with a replacement argument like \1\U\2\3.
The questioner had a very specific case in mind.
As a general "change to sentence case" in notepad++
the first regexp suggestion did not work properly for me.
while not perfect, here is a tweaked version which
was a big improvement on the original for my purposes :
find: ([\.\r\n][ ]*)([A-Za-z\r])([^\.^\r^\n]+)
replace: \1\U\2\L\3
You still have a problem with lower case nouns, names, dates, countries etc. but a good spellchecker can help with that.