Using Regular Expressions to find comments in .btm files

[Joe Caverly]

I have been using the following to find comments in .btm files;

R:\>ffind /kvm /e"^( {0}::| {0}REM )") r:\zoom150.btm
::    File: zoom150.btm
:: Created: 2024-07-19
::   _4ver: 32.10
:: _winver: 10.0
::echo %_startpid
::activate "New tab*"
:: Changed to 13 (was 15) on 2024-07-21
:: Changed to 16 (was 13) on 2024-10-20

However, this neglects comments that do not appear at the beginning of a line.

No biggie, it still gives me the gist of the comments.

A recent conversation has encouraged me to try and find comments that not only appear at the beginning of a line,
but that begin in iff structures and such.

As Regular Expressions and I are not friends,
even after reviewing Beginning Regular Expressions
I gave in and asked DuckAI for assistance.

Link to DuckAI conversation: Shared Duck.ai Chat
(the link expires 30 days from now).

Thus, I have updated my Comments.btm script;

@SETLOCAL
@ECHO OFF
if isdir r:\temp set temp=r:\temp

iff %# eq 0 then
  echo USAGE: %_batchname theFile.btm
  quit
endiff

set theFile=%1

iff exist %theFile then
  ffind /kvm /e"^[ \t]*(::|REM )" %theFile
  ffind /kvm /e"^[ \t]*(::|REM )" %theFile > tmp9:
  echo ^nNumber of comment lines: %@inc[%@lines[tmp9:]]
else
  echo %theFile does not exist.
endiff

:eoj
ENDLOCAL

Output;

R:\>comments r:\zoom150.btm
::    File: zoom150.btm
:: Created: 2024-07-19
::   _4ver: 32.10
:: _winver: 10.0
                :: NEXT SENTENCE
::echo %_startpid
::activate "New tab*"
:: Changed to 13 (was 15) on 2024-07-21
:: Changed to 16 (was 13) on 2024-10-20

Number of comment lines: 9

I re-visted this due to the new LINES command in the FileUtils plugin,
which shows the number of comment lines in a .btm file.

FileUtils plugin: FileUtils Plugin

Joe

 

[Jay Sage]

If you change {0} to {0,}, the expression will allow any number of spaces before the comment designator. Or you could replace {0} with * (which means the same thing).

 

[Joe Caverly]

Thanks @Jay Sage ,
but neither of those caught the line with the leading spaces.

R:\>ffind /kvm /e"^( {0,}::| {0,}REM )") r:\zoom150.btm
::    File: zoom150.btm
:: Created: 2024-07-19
::   _4ver: 32.10
:: _winver: 10.0
::echo %_startpid
::activate "New tab*"
:: Changed to 13 (was 15) on 2024-07-21
:: Changed to 16 (was 13) on 2024-10-20

R:\>ffind /kvm /e"^( *::| *REM )") r:\zoom150.btm
::    File: zoom150.btm
:: Created: 2024-07-19
::   _4ver: 32.10
:: _winver: 10.0
::echo %_startpid
::activate "New tab*"
:: Changed to 13 (was 15) on 2024-07-21
:: Changed to 16 (was 13) on 2024-10-20

R:\>comments.btm r:\zoom150.btm
::    File: zoom150.btm
:: Created: 2024-07-19
::   _4ver: 32.10
:: _winver: 10.0
                :: NEXT SENTENCE
::echo %_startpid
::activate "New tab*"
:: Changed to 13 (was 15) on 2024-07-21
:: Changed to 16 (was 13) on 2024-10-20

Number of comment lines: 9

Joe

 

[Joe Caverly]

Hey @Jay Sage it would seem the line;

                :: NEXT SENTENCE

...is preceeded with two tabs,
not spaces,
which explains why your solution did not work.

I originally missed the fact that the comment line was using tabs,
not spaces.

Joe

 

[Joe Caverly]

Yes @Jay Sage I changed the tabs to spaces,
and your solution works for that comment line.

Thanks for helping me remember that I used tabs instead of spaces.

Joe

 

[Charles Dye]

Perhaps the regex engine has some expression to match whitespace characters in general, instead of just tabs?

 

[Joe Caverly]

From what DuckAI explained to me;

\s includes newline characters in TCC’s default regular-expression syntax.
So \s* can consume past the end of a line—and across blank lines—before matching :: or REM.
That explains why the output includes an empty line.
The documented whitespace class includes \n and \r.

Ref: Extended Windows Wildcards and Windows Regular Expressions in TCC

Ref: DuckAI conversation: Shared Duck.ai Chat

Joe

 

[Jay Sage]

You can use this:

ffind /kvm /e"^\s*(::|REM)"​

That expression is looking for the beginning of a line (^) followed by any amount of white space (\s*) followed by either "::" or "REM".

An easy way to learn about and experiment with regular expressions is to open the Regular Expression Analyzer" tool that is part of Take Command. The help file also includes a lot of detailed information.

 

[Jay Sage]

I just discovered that the expression above is case-sensitive, which is not what one wants (since "rem" or "ReM") can begin a comment). One needs to add the option (?i).

ffind /kvm /e"^\s*(::|(?i)REM)"

The option could be inserted at the beginning of the entire expression to make the case independence apply everywhere in the test.

ffind /kvm /e"(?i)^\s*(::|REM)"

In addition, one should require that "REM" be followed by white space.

ffind /kvm /e"(?i)^\s*(::|REM\s)"

 

[vefatica]

I occasionally do the likes of this.

echo foo & REM comment

This works too (recently tested).

echo foo & :: comment

So how would you find them? You'd need some text, then an unescaped & (whitespace on either side), then REM or ::

I don't feel like trying that one. ^ is just too special.

I thought of suggesting you TEE TMP9: but that apparently doesn't work (sigh!).

How do I find a discussion of TMP0: - TMP9: in the help?

 

[Joe Caverly]

You can use this:

ffind /kvm /e"^\s*(::|REM)"​

That produces a blank line in the search results;

R:\>ffind /kvm /e"^\s*(::|REM)" zoom150.btm
::    File: zoom150.btm
:: Created: 2024-07-19
::   _4ver: 32.10
:: _winver: 10.0
                :: NEXT SENTENCE
::echo %_startpid
::activate "New tab*"

:: Changed to 13 (was 15) on 2024-07-21
:: Changed to 16 (was 13) on 2024-10-20

Refer to Post #7 in this thread for why that happens.
Reference: Using Regular Expressions to find comments in .btm files

Joe

 

[Jay Sage]

OK, I'll look into your comment. Meanwhile, I was worrying about lines beginning with the string REM followed by another character, which makes it not a comment. Does this work? It seems to for me.

ffind /kvm /e"(?i)^\s*(::|rem(\s|$))"

 

[Joe Caverly]

I still get the blank line.

R:\>ffind /kvm /e"(?i)^\s*(::|rem(\s|$))" r:\zoom150.btm
::    File: zoom150.btm
:: Created: 2024-07-19
::   _4ver: 32.10
:: _winver: 10.0
                :: NEXT SENTENCE
::echo %_startpid
::activate "New tab*"

:: Changed to 13 (was 15) on 2024-07-21
:: Changed to 16 (was 13) on 2024-10-20

From DuckAI;

\s includes newline characters in TCC’s default regular-expression syntax.
So \s* can consume past the end of a line—and across blank lines—before matching :: or REM.
That explains why the output includes an empty line.
The documented whitespace class includes \n and \r.

This works for me;

ffind /kvm /e"^[ \t]*(::|REM )"

Joe