Correct Regex for strip unwanted comments from HTML

Question

I want a regular expression which can strip all comments from the HTML using PHP.

I saw some threads on stackoverflow like Regexp match strickly html comment string, but the regex provided there doesn't work. My PHP code outputs nothing after I apply the provided code.

I have written:

$regex = array('/<!--((.*)!(\[if))-->/Uis', "/[[:blank:]]+/");
$replaced_comment_in_html = preg_replace($regex, '', $html);

But it shows comments the HTML:

<!-- This is my test comment, which I want to be removed in HTML  -->
<!--[if lt IE 9]>
    <script src="something.js"></script>
<![endif]-->

It does not remove the comments that I want to be removed, and if I write the below regex, then it removes all comments (also the IE style and scripts, which are required on the page)

$regex = array('/<!--(.*)-->/Uis', "/[[:blank:]]+/");

Can someone help?

You really should not parse XML/HTML with regex. Instead, you should use PHP's DOM extension to parse your markup string, and use that to remove comments, as is asked and answered in this question. — ajp15243
– ajp15243, Commented Mar 16, 2014 at 6:43

Amit Joki · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-16 06:53:09Z

1

Use this regex:

<!--[^\[].*-->

This will not remove IE comments, but will remove other comments.

Use it like this:

$regex = array('/<!--[^\[].*-->/Uis', "/[[:blank:]]+/");
$replaced_comment_in_html = preg_replace($regex, '', $html);

answered Mar 16, 2014 at 6:53

Amit Joki

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