regex to do multi line search in eclipse

Question

I need a regular expression to match only the comment before the line containing "private final VARIABLE".

INPUT:

/**
*okay1
*/
menu
/**
*  okay2.
*/
private final VARIABLE;

OUTPUT should be :

/**
*  okay2.
*/
private final VARIABLE;

The strings okay1 and okay2 could be anything. They represent comments here. I tried doing this which does not work.

 ((\/\*\*[\S\s]*\*\/){1})[\s]*(private\s*final\s*VARIABLE\;)

This matches the first comment as well (okay1) which I dont want. I am familiar with regex but this is something not straightforward. Would appreciate any help. Thanks.

Answer 1

You may use a regex like

/\*+[^*]*\*+(?:[^/*][^*]*\*+)*/\s*(private\s+final\s+VARIABLE;)

See the online demo

Details

• /\*+ - match the comment start, /* and any 0+ asterisks after it
• [^*]*\*+ - match 0+ characters other than * followed with 1+ literal *
• (?:[^/*][^*]*\*+)* - 0+ sequences of:
  • [^/*][^*]*\*+ - not a / or * (matched with [^/*]) followed with 0+ non-asterisk characters ([^*]*) followed with 1+ asterisks (\*+)
• / - closing /
• \s* - 0+ whitespaces
• (private\s+final\s+VARIABLE;) - Group 1: private, 1+ whitespaces, final, 1+ whitespaces, VARIABLE;.