NAME

Regexp::Common::comment -- provide regexes for comments.

SYNOPSIS

use Regexp::Common qw /comment/;

while (<>) {
    /$RE{comment}{C}/       and  print "Contains a C comment\n";
    /$RE{comment}{C++}/     and  print "Contains a C++ comment\n";
    /$RE{comment}{PHP}/     and  print "Contains a PHP comment\n";
    /$RE{comment}{Java}/    and  print "Contains a Java comment\n";
    /$RE{comment}{Perl}/    and  print "Contains a Perl comment\n";
    /$RE{comment}{awk}/     and  print "Contains an awk comment\n";
    /$RE{comment}{HTML}/    and  print "Contains an HTML comment\n";
}

use Regexp::Common qw /comment RE_comment_HTML/;

while (<>) {
    $_ =~ RE_comment_HTML() and  print "Contains an HTML comment\n";
}

DESCRIPTION

Please consult the manual of Regexp::Common for a general description of the works of this interface.

Do not use this module directly, but load it via Regexp::Common.

This modules gives you regular expressions for comments in various languages.

Available languages are:

$RE{comment}{Ada}
$RE{comment}{awk}
$RE{comment}{C}
$RE{comment}{C++}
$RE{comment}{Dylan}        # Require at least Perl 5.6.0.
$RE{comment}{Eiffel}
$RE{comment}{Haskell}      # Require at least Perl 5.6.0.
$RE{comment}{HTML}
$RE{comment}{Java}
$RE{comment}{LaTeX}
$RE{comment}{LOGO}
$RE{comment}{LPC}
$RE{comment}{Perl}
$RE{comment}{PHP}
$RE{comment}{Python}
$RE{comment}{REBOL}
$RE{comment}{Ruby}
$RE{comment}{shell}
$RE{comment}{Smalltalk}
$RE{comment}{SQL}
$RE{comment}{SQL}{MySQL}
$RE{comment}{Tcl}
$RE{comment}{TeX}
$RE{comment}{troff}
$RE{comment}{vi}
$RE{comment}{zonefile}

$RE{comment}{vi} is a regular expression matching comments used in vi's startup file .exrc, while $RE{comment}{zonefile} is a regular expression matching comments in zonefiles for bind.

For HTML, the regular expression captures what's known in SGML as a comment declaration. It starts with a <!, ends with a > and contains zero or more comments. Each comment starts and end with --. See also [Go 90].

If we are using C{-keep} (See Regexp::Common):

For Ada, awk, C, Eiffel, LaTeX, LOGO, LPC, Perl, Python, REBOL, Ruby, shell, Smalltalk, SQL, TeX, Tcl, troff, vi and zonefile:

$1

captures the entire match

$2

captures the opening comment marker

$3

captures the contents of the comment

$4

captures the closing comment marker

For C++, Dylan, Haskell, Java, PHP and SQL_MySQL:

$1

captures the entire match

For HTML

$1

captures the entire match

$2

captures the MDO (<!).

$3

captures the content between the MDO and the MDC.

$4

captures the (last) comment, without the COMs (--).

$5

captures the MDC (>).

REFERENCES

[Go 90]

Charles F. Goldfarb: The SGML Handbook. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1990. ISBN 0-19-853737-9. Ch. 10.3, pp 390-391.

SEE ALSO

Regexp::Common for a general description of how to use this interface.

AUTHOR

Damian Conway (damian@conway.org)

MAINTAINANCE

This package is maintained by Abigail (regexp-common@abigail.nl).

BUGS AND IRRITATIONS

Bound to be plenty.

For a start, there are many common regexes missing. Send them in to regexp-common@abigail.nl.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2001 - 2002, Damian Conway. All Rights Reserved.
  This module is free software. It may be used, redistributed
 and/or modified under the terms of the Perl Artistic License
       (see http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html)