Question

Is there any tool / Eclipse plugin that can remove all JavaDoc comments in a file?

The normal (non-JavaDoc) comments should be intact after running the tool.

Answer 1

Try this regex to search replace either in eclipse / sed / your favorite editor that has regex support.

/\*\*(?s:(?!\*/).)*\*/

• ?s treat input as single line
• a starting string \**
• zero or more
  • negative lookahead for */
  • space or non space char
• a trailing string */

Edit

To tackle cases where strings containing javadoc, use this regex

((?<!\\)"([^"]|(?<=\\)")*")|(/\*\*(?s:(?!\*/).)*\*/)

and replace it with first capture group

/1

Then if you say this shouldn’t match

///** */

or more complex cases

I suggest, using a parser tool like antlr to parse using java grammar for tokens like comments and strings and remove elements that you don’t want

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Sometime I find my own regex answers cryptic !!

So here is some visual feedback

((?!\\)"([^"]|(?=\\)")*")|(/\*\*(?:(?!\*/).)*\*/)

Debuggex Demo

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/\*\*(?:(?!\*/).)*\*/

Debuggex Demo