ignore multiline comments in text file when reading in python

Question

i'm trying to count how many lines of code are in multiple text files in a directory using a python script. I've come up with the following method, but it only works if the comment is on one line not multiline. is there a way to do this?

def remove_comments(line):
    if line.startswith('/*') or line.endsswith('*/'):
        return 0
    else:
        return 1

count = sum(remove_comments(line) for line in f if line.strip())

Answer 1

A dirty hack could be to use a global variable:

with open("test", 'r') as f_in:
    f = f_in.readlines()

is_in_comment = False

def remove_comments(line):
    global is_in_comment
    line = line.strip()

    if line.startswith('/*'):
        is_in_comment = True
        return 0
    elif line.endswith('*/'):
        is_in_comment = False
        return 0

    return 0 if is_in_comment else 1

count = sum(remove_comments(line) for line in f if line.strip())

This assumes you can't have a */ without previous /* however. This code returns 3 for the following test file:

That is one line
Another
/* Comment
Other comment
End comment */
Final line, not a comment