Finding comments in a string

Question

I have file which has comments at the top.

e.g.

/**
 * Comments for file.
 *
 */

Using PHP, I read content of file using file_get_contents into variable now I want to get value present inside comment. For above example expected result would be

* Comments for file
*
*

Which means I want content inside those /** and */. This file can have multiple comments but I want the very first which is at the top of file.

Any ideas/help please ?

UPDATE:- It is normal text file. Not PHP file.

Using a parser like https://github.com/nikic/PHP-Parser/releases/tag/v0.9.4 might help; annotation libraries like https://github.com/zircote/swagger-php might also be useful depending on what you want to do with the comments — Mark Baker, Aug 27 '13 at 12:10
The reflection API has a [method for getting DocBlock comments](http://php.net/manual/en/reflectionclass.getdoccomment.php) from PHP code. It may be helpful if you are trying to get the comments from a PHP file. — Sverri M. Olsen, Aug 27 '13 at 12:15
@jeff, as stated in the question, they're strictly concerned with the first `/*` comment. — Jason McCreary, Aug 27 '13 at 12:15
Yes strictly with the first comments and its not PHP file but normal text file. — Umakant Patil, Aug 28 '13 at 05:47

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 27 '13 at 12:12

6

You can read comment using tokenizer

$source = file_get_contents('example.php');
$tokens = token_get_all($source);

answered Aug 27 '13 at 12:12

Dipesh Parmar

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I would have mentioned earlier its no PHP file. It is txt file. – Umakant Patil Aug 28 '13 at 05:41

Casimir et Hippolyte · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-27T12:38:33.567

1

To complete Dipesh Parmar good answer, an example:

$subject =<<<'LOD'
sdf df sdf sdf 
sdf sdf sdf sdf
<?php 
/**
* Youhou!!
*
* HiHa!
*
*/
LOD;

$tokens = token_get_all($subject);

foreach($tokens as $token) {
    if (is_array($token)&&$token[0]==T_DOC_COMMENT) {
        echo substr(substr($token[1],4),0,-3);
        break;
    }
}

Notice: this work if and only if the subject contains <?php, otherwhise comments are seen as simple text by the tokenizer. If <?php is missing you can easily add it before the subject:

$tokens = token_get_all('<?php'.$subject);

You can do it systematically, it's not a problem to have two <?php for this task.

edited Aug 27 '13 at 12:38

answered Aug 27 '13 at 12:29

Casimir et Hippolyte

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Sorry Casimir and thanks for the information but its not php file but txt file. – Umakant Patil Aug 28 '13 at 05:43
@UmakantPatil: Then it works if you use the trick in the notice part. – Casimir et Hippolyte Aug 28 '13 at 06:54

SamWhan · Answer 3 · 2013-08-27T12:17:37.320

0

Try /\*{2}\s(.*?)\s\*/

Regards.

edited Aug 27 '13 at 12:17

answered Aug 27 '13 at 12:12

SamWhan

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This does not get me result. May be because of new line characters. I'm using preg_match for this. – Umakant Patil Aug 28 '13 at 05:41
I'm not in to PHP at all, but from what I found in [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8958310/matching-multiple-lines-pattern-via-php-preg-match](this) discussion something like `preg_match('#\*{2}\s(.*?)\s\*/#s',$str,$matches);` might do the trick. The trick being the s after the ending delimiter meaning PCRE_DOTALL, i.e. '.' will match new-line characters. – SamWhan Aug 30 '13 at 06:56

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 27 '13 at 12:14

0

If the file is a PHP class, then you can use the ReflectionClass::getDocComment and ReflectionMethod::getDocComment

e.g

$instance = new ClassWithComments();
$reflectionClass = new \ReflectionClass($instance);
echo $reflectionCLass->getDocComment();

answered Aug 27 '13 at 12:14

AlexP

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Sorry its not PHP file. – Umakant Patil Aug 28 '13 at 05:42

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 27 '13 at 12:14

0

the standard recommendation is to use a parser instead of regex.

however ^/\*(([^*]*[*]*[^*/])+)\*/ should do the trick in your case. remember to enable multiline-matching in your regex engine. capture group 1 contains the result.

answered Aug 27 '13 at 12:14

collapsar

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Thanks, How would I enable multi-line matching in PHP? – Umakant Patil Aug 28 '13 at 05:43
And even if I use this with preg_match it would result me with error :- Warning: preg_match(): Unknown modifier '*' in test.php on line 12 – Umakant Patil Aug 28 '13 at 05:47

Finding comments in a string

5 Answers5