Regex to match a C-style multiline comment

java, regex, string

Solution

Try using this regex (Single line comments only):

String src ="How are things today /* this is comment */ and is your code /* this is another comment */ working?";
String result=src.replaceAll("/\\*.*?\\*/","");//single line comments
System.out.println(result);

REGEX explained:

Match the character "/" literally

Match the character "*" literally

"." Match any single character

"*?" Between zero and unlimited times, as few times as possible, expanding as needed (lazy)

Match the character "*" literally

Match the character "/" literally

Alternatively here is regex for single and multi-line comments by adding (?s):

//note the added \n which wont work with previous regex
String src ="How are things today /* this\n is comment */ and is your code /* this is another comment */ working?";
String result=src.replaceAll("(?s)/\\*.*?\\*/","");
System.out.println(result);

Reference:

- https://www.regular-expressions.info/examplesprogrammer.html

Problem

I have a string for e.g. ``` String src = "How are things today /* this is comment *\*/ and is your code /*\* this is another comment */ working?" ``` I want to remove `/* this is comment *\*/` and `/** this is another comment */` substrings from the `src` string. I tried to use regex but failed due to less experience.

Original source