Regular expression to select anything between * …. and …. *
Question:
I want to write a regular expression for multiline comments.
My Expression: \*[sS]*?*/
What I expect:
1)
/*
this is a comment
*/
Not a comment
/*
new comment
*/
/*
comment 1
comment 3
*/
Not a comment
Not a comment
*/
The output I get:
Answers:
Your RegEx is matching the wrong type of slash. \* is parsed from start to end, so \ is interpreted as the escape sequence for * character unescaped. To fix this, use /* to start your RegEx, or use /* with a raw string in Python. Like this:
import re
test1 = '''
/*
this is a comment
*/
Not a comment
/*
new comment
*/
'''
test2 = '''
/*
comment 1
comment 3
*/
Not a comment
Not a comment
*/
'''
# out1 = re.findall(r'/*.*?*/', test1)
out1 = re.findall(r'/*([sS]*?)*/', test1)
print(out1)
out2 = re.findall(r'/*([sS]*?)*/', test2)
print(out2)
I want to write a regular expression for multiline comments.
My Expression: \*[sS]*?*/
What I expect:
1)
/*
this is a comment
*/
Not a comment
/*
new comment
*/
/*
comment 1
comment 3
*/
Not a comment
Not a comment
*/
The output I get:
Your RegEx is matching the wrong type of slash. \* is parsed from start to end, so \ is interpreted as the escape sequence for , and that leaves your * character unescaped. To fix this, use /* to start your RegEx, or use /* with a raw string in Python. Like this:
import re
test1 = '''
/*
this is a comment
*/
Not a comment
/*
new comment
*/
'''
test2 = '''
/*
comment 1
comment 3
*/
Not a comment
Not a comment
*/
'''
# out1 = re.findall(r'/*.*?*/', test1)
out1 = re.findall(r'/*([sS]*?)*/', test1)
print(out1)
out2 = re.findall(r'/*([sS]*?)*/', test2)
print(out2)