[2.0] Problem with Regex formatting C++ code to HTML

I'm using regular expressions to format C++ code to HTML with syntax highlighting. I've run into several problems right off the bat. Have a look at the functions I have so far and see if you can help me figure this out.

I'll start with the simplest function, to format strings for HTML in dark red:

Code:

---

public string FormatStrings(string strSource)
{
        Regex r = new Regex("(\".*?\")+?|('.*?')+?|(\"|').*");
        MatchEvaluator eval = new MatchEvaluator(ReplaceRed);
        strSource = r.Replace(strSource, eval);

        return strSource;
}

public string ReplaceRed(Match m)
{
        return "<span style=\"color: #800000\">" + m + "</span>";
}

---

This looks for:

1) a " followed by anything but \n (.), zero or more times, but as few as possible (*?) followed by a matching " - all that one or more times, but as few as possible.

2) same scenario except for single quotes

3) an unmatched " or ' followed by anything but \n




Next, functions to format comments in dark green:

Code:

---

public string FormatComments(string strSource)
{

        Regex r = new Regex("(/\\*(.|\n)*?\\*/)+?|//.*|/\\*(.|\n)*");
        MatchEvaluator eval = new MatchEvaluator(ReplaceGreen);
        strSource = r.Replace(strSource, eval);

        return strSource;
}

public string ReplaceGreen(Match m)
{
        return "<span style=\"color: #008000\">" + m + "</span>";
}

---

This searches for:

1) a slash /* followed by anything including newline, zero or more times but as few as possible (*?) followed by */ - all that one or more times but as few as possible

2) a // followed by anything but \n

3) an unterminated /*



The first problem I have is if I have strings nested within comments, after I call both replace functions, the nested inner string tags will override the comment coloring.

for example, this is some text before formatting:

Code:

---

// this is a "comment"

---

and after running FormatStrings and FormatComments:

Code:

---


<span style="color: #008000">// this is a <span style="color: #800000">"comment"</span>
</span>

---

So as I see it, I have two or more options:

1) Don't match strings that are enclosed in comment tags - but this is very difficult since it would involve a complex lookahead/lookbehind

2) Run the strings first, then when running comments, if I find nested string tags, remove the tags

Is there a better way to do this?

Hello,

To be honest, i haven't read all your post, so I am not in anyway trying to answer your question here, but a suggestion that I have would be the following:

Syntax Highlighter

which will highlight all the syntax that you would like. If you are doing this as a learning experience, then ignore it, but if you are just trying to get your syntax highlighted, it might be worth a look!!

Hope this helps!

Gary

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gep13

Hello,

To be honest, i haven't read all your post, so I am not in anyway trying to answer your question here, but a suggestion that I have would be the following:

Syntax Highlighter

which will highlight all the syntax that you would like. If you are doing this as a learning experience, then ignore it, but if you are just trying to get your syntax highlighted, it might be worth a look!!

Hope this helps!

Gary

---

Thanks for the link...I looked at what he was trying to do and he did put a lot of work into it, but for all that - it doesn't even highlight C# code properly.

Actually, live syntax highlighting would be nice to have but first I just want to be able to parse C++ files (C# later on) and generate HTML out of them.

I was hoping someone with a lot of Regular Expression experience could help.