match text between comment string in javascript code

Question

I am trying to strip out code between some tags. Its from a JavaScript plugin and it has multiple occurencies.

For example:

/*<ltIE8>*/                                ╗
if (!item.hasOwnProperty) return false;    ╣ this should match / go away
/*</ltIE8>*/                               ╝
return item instanceof object;             // this should not go away/match
...
/*<ltIE8>*/                                     ╗
if (!window.addEvenetListener) return false;    ╣ this should match / go away
/*</ltIE8>*/                                    ╝
return window.addEvent;

I would like to match/remove those two blocks.

Tried using lookaheads like \/\*<ltIE8>\*\/(?!=\/\*<\/ltIE8>\*\/)([\s\S]+) but it ends up matching from the first ocurrence to the last, and missing the ones in-between.

Example: https://regex101.com/r/iD6mL8/1

Any sugestions? (I will be doing these replacements using JavaScript/NodeJS).

How many is multiple? I would just do it by hand, I trust my hand more than I trust regex — musefan
– musefan, Commented Jan 2, 2015 at 16:10
If you're planning on doing this on the serverside, to ouput different things for different browsers, first of all, don't, and secondly, use a templating language, like Jade or EJS with a condition instead of searching the content with regex. — adeneo
– adeneo, Commented Jan 2, 2015 at 16:11
@adeneo I want to do it just once, not browser sniffing. I understand your point. Its about 40 occurencies. — Rikard
– Rikard, Commented Jan 2, 2015 at 16:13
@musefan Yes I could do it by hand, just would like to be effective and got into a problem I could not solve myself. — Rikard
– Rikard, Commented Jan 2, 2015 at 16:13

vks · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-02 16:13:58Z

1

\/\*<ltIE8>\*\/([\s\S]+?)(?=\/\*<\/ltIE8>\*\/)

Try this.See demo.

https://www.regex101.com/r/fG5pZ8/18

answered Jan 2, 2015 at 16:13

vks

68.1k11 gold badges96 silver badges132 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

musefan Over a year ago

This doesn't seem to include the trailing comment, i.e. /*</ltIE8>*/

vks Over a year ago

@musefan i am not sure OP wants that.Lets wait for his call

musefan Over a year ago

I dunno, the "this should match / go away" scope seems pretty clear to me. But to be fair, leaving in the comments isn't going to break anything (just will look silly and add to file size)

musefan · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-02 16:50:30Z

0

I suck at regex, but this seems to work:

(\/\*<ltIE8>\*\/)[\s\S]*?(\/\*<\/ltIE8>\*\/)

The key to this solution is the ?, it tells the regex to not be greedy which basically means it stops when it finds the next /*</ltIE8>*/ rather than going all the way to the very last one.

Here is a working example

edited Jan 2, 2015 at 16:50

answered Jan 2, 2015 at 16:17

musefan

48.5k21 gold badges144 silver badges193 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

match text between comment string in javascript code

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related