NAME
    String::Comments::Extract - Extract comments from C/C++/JavaScript/Java
    source

VERSION
    version 0.023

SYNOPSIS
        use String::Comments::Extract;

        my $source = <<_END_
        /* A Hello World program
    
            Copyright Ty Coon
            // ...and Buckaroo Banzai
          "Yoyodyne"*/

        void main() {
            printf("Hello, World.\n");
            printf("/* This is not a real comment */");
            printf("// Neither is this */");
            // But this is
        }

        // Last comment
        _END_

        my $comments = String::Comments::Extract::C->extract($source)
        # ... returns the following result:

            /* A Hello World program
        
                Copyright Ty Coon
                // ...and Buckaroo Banzai
              "Yoyodyne"*/

          
            
            
            
                // But this is
        

            // Last comment

        my @comments = String::Comments::Extract::C->collect($source)
        # ... returns the following list:
            (
    ' A Hello World program
    
            Copyright Ty Coon
            // ...and Buckaroo Banzai
          "Yoyodyne"',
                ' But this is',
                ' Last comment',
            )

DESCRIPTION
    String::Comments::Extract is a tool for extracting comments from
    C/C++/JavaScript/Java source. The extractor is implemented using an
    actual tokenizer (written in C via XS [adapted from
    JavaScript::Minifier::XS]). By using a tokenizer, it can correctly deal
    with notoriously problematic cases, such as comment-like structures
    embedded in strings:

        std::cout << "This is not a // real C++ comment " << std::endl
        printf("/* This is not a real C comment */\n");
        # The extractor will ignore both of the above

    String::Comments::Extract considers C/C++/JavaScript/Java comment
    structures the same, so, for now, it doesn't really matter which method
    you use (this means it will not complain about C++ style comments in C
    source).

    The language agnostic interface to C/C++/JavaScript/Java comment
    extractor is accessible via String::Comments::Extract::SlashStar

        # Can handle slash-star (/* */) and slash-slash (//) comments
        String::Comments::Extract::SlashStar->extract
        String::Comments::Extract::SlashStar->collect

METHODS
  String::Comments::Extract::JavaScript->extract( <source> )
  String::Comments::Extract::CPP->extract( <source> )
  String::Comments::Extract::C->extract( <source> )
  String::Comments::Extract::SlashStar->extract( <source> )
    Returns a string representing the comments in <source>

    Comment delimeters ( "/* */ //" ) are left in as-is

    Whitespace of <source> is otherwise preserved, so you'll probably have
    to do some post-processing to get rid of some cruft.

  String::Comments::Extract::JavaScript->collect( <source> )
  String::Comments::Extract::CPP->collect( <source> )
  String::Comments::Extract::C->collect( <source> )
  String::Comments::Extract::SlashStar->collect( <source> )
    Returns a list containing an item for each block- or line-comment in
    <source>

    Comment delimeters ( "/* */ //" ) around the comment are removed

    Whitespace outside of comments may not be preserved exactly

SEE ALSO
    File::Comments

AUTHOR
    Robert Krimen <robertkrimen@gmail.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
    This software is copyright (c) 2010 by Robert Krimen.

    This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
    the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.