Text Processingflags: g

C-Style Block Comment

Match C-style /* ... */ block comments across multiple lines.

Available in

JavaScript / ECMAScript code

jsJavaScript

const re = new RegExp("\\/\\*[\\s\\S]*?\\*\\/", "g");
const input = "/* one */ var x = 1; /* two\\nlines */ y = 2;";
const matches = [...input.matchAll(re)];
console.log(matches.map(m => m[0]));

Uses `String.prototype.matchAll` for global iteration (Node 12+ / all modern browsers).

Python (re) code

pyPython

import re

pattern = re.compile(r"\/\*[\s\S]*?\*\/")
input_text = "/* one */ var x = 1; /* two\nlines */ y = 2;"
for m in pattern.finditer(input_text):
    print(m.group(0))

Stdlib `re` module — no third-party dependency. Works on Python 3.6+.

Go (RE2) code

goGo

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"regexp"
)

func main() {
	re := regexp.MustCompile(`\/\*[\s\S]*?\*\/`)
	input := `/* one */ var x = 1; /* two\nlines */ y = 2;`
	for _, match := range re.FindAllString(input, -1) {
		fmt.Println(match)
	}
}

Uses `regexp.MustCompile` (panics on bad patterns at startup) and `FindAllString` for all matches.

Pattern

regexengine-agnostic

\/\*[\s\S]*?\*\/   (flags: g)

Raw source: \/\*[\s\S]*?\*\/

How it works

\/\* matches the literal `/*`. [\s\S]*? lazily matches any characters including newlines (the [\s\S] idiom avoids needing a dotAll/s flag). \*\/ matches the closing `*/`. Lazy matching ensures adjacent comment blocks aren't merged into one giant match.