CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonregexparsingcommentslazy-evaluation
mtosch
mtosch

Reputation: 461

regex to grab only one c-style multi-line comment immediately above a function

I'm trying to grab the multi-line comment in some c code that is above an arbitrary function using a regular expression. ONLY the comment immediately above the function and the function code itself is what i'm interested in. The comment will definitely have a "\abc" in it at the end (see snippet). I also don't really care if there is some more code or text below the function. A solution that contains some text/noise after the function is also acceptable.

I was thinking to grab the comment above the function via lazy evaluation but it's not quite working yet.

Here is my minimal example

import re

snippet = """
/*=================================================*
* THIS IS NOT THE COMMENT I WANT
*===============================================*/

/* THIS IS THE COMMENT I WANT.
* It should be able to have special characters like /,*.
* \\abc
*/
TEST(foo,bar){
    ...
}
"""

pattern = re.compile(r"(\/\*.)?\\abc.*", re.DOTALL)
search = pattern.search(snippet)
match = search.group(0)
print(match)

Output

\abc
*/
TEST(foo,bar){
    ...
}

Desired output

/* THIS IS THE COMMENT I WANT.
* It should be able to have special characters like /,*.
* \abc
*/
TEST(foo,bar){
    ...
}

Upvotes: 1

Views: 59

Answers (1)

LogicalKip
LogicalKip

Reputation: 522

/\*((?!\*/).)+\\abc.*

This isn't the most readable but it works. It reads : /* then \abc then everything, but you can't match */ until you've matched the \abc. Or more accurately, /* then a number of characters that aren't */, then \abc, then everything.

https://regex101.com/r/x1bXVg/3

Upvotes: 3

Related Questions