regex that doesn't match between HTML comments

Question

I have a regex that I want to match a certain pattern. However, I don't want it to match that pattern if it exists between HTML comment blocks

What I have currently is:

(?<!<!--)pattern(?!-->)

However that only works when the pattern is exactly between comment blocks but not in the case of something like:

<!-- foo pattern -->

But if I do:

(?<!<!--.*)pattern(?!-->)

then this case doesn't work:

<!-- some commented out stuff --> pattern

I think if I could express (everything except -->)*? within the negative look behind it would work but I'm unsure of the proper syntax or if that's allowed.

(?<!) might work then. What you ask for is (?<!(?:(?!).)*)pattern(?!(?:(?!).)*-->) — Wiktor Stribiżew
– Wiktor Stribiżew, Commented Jun 14, 2019 at 21:32
When you say between comment blocks, if you have 400 comment blocks or 2, all it takes is to have a comment block at the top, and one at the bottom. — user557597
– user557597, Commented Jun 14, 2019 at 22:04
No matter how you try, there is only one way to do this, replace the first and last comment, and everything between with nothing, then try a new regex with your pattern on what's left. — user557597
– user557597, Commented Jun 14, 2019 at 22:07
You can't just say (?:.*)?.*?pattern it finds pattern no matter what. You could match both, to move past comments like this (?:.*)|(pattern) then see if group 1 matched. It's the only way. — user557597
– user557597, Commented Jun 14, 2019 at 22:12

Emma Marcier · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-14 22:44:52Z

0

My guess is that, your original expression is just fine with maybe a bit modification, we might want to have an expression similar to:

(?<=<!--).*pattern.*(?=-->)

Demo

and if we wish to capture or not-capture anything around pattern these might be of interest:

(?<=<!--).*(pattern).*(?=-->)
(?<=<!--)(.*pattern.*)(?=-->)
(?<=<!--)(.*)(pattern)(.*)(?=-->)
(?<=<!--)(?:.*)(pattern)(?:.*)(?=-->)

answered Jun 14, 2019 at 22:44

Emma Marcier

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