How to remove `//`?

Question

How can I remove the (//<![CDATA[ , //]]>) blocks; tags inside a script element.

<script type="text/javascript">
    //<![CDATA[
    var l=new Array();
    ..........................
    ..........................
    //]]>
</script>

Looks like it can be done with preg_replace() but havent found a solution that works for me.

What regex would I use?

bomanden: @JonathanM is right, you may not need to remove these elements. See [When is a CDATA section necessary within a script tag?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/66837/when-is-a-cdata-section-necessary-within-a-script-tag) and [Is CDATA really necessary?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4215261/is-cdata-really-necessary). Think it over. — Tadeck, Nov 27 '11 at 04:28
Ok - Its just that the Javascript dont fire .. so the code is not executed .. It is when I use Alan's solution. But thanks on the info. — bomanden, Nov 27 '11 at 09:11

score 21 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 27 '11 at 04:51

21

You don't need regex for a static string.

Replace those parts of the texts with nothing:

$string = str_replace("//<![CDATA[","",$string);
$string = str_replace("//]]>","",$string);

answered Nov 27 '11 at 04:51

dimme

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What if it includes that text as part of the `script` body, perhaps as a string? – alex Jul 11 '14 at 01:14
I like this solution far better than the Regex option, much cleaner to read. – Muhammad Abdul-Rahim Aug 05 '16 at 19:20

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 27 '11 at 04:12

13

The following regex will do it...

$removed = preg_replace('/^\s*\/\/<!\[CDATA\[([\s\S]*)\/\/\]\]>\s*\z/', 
                        '$1', 
                        $scriptText);

CodePad.

answered Nov 27 '11 at 04:12

alex

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984

1

Hi Alex .. No unfortunately not. Do know why - but got a Alans working. Perhaps you can see the difference between the two solutions. Thank you for your input. – bomanden Nov 27 '11 at 19:31

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 27 '11 at 04:42

6

If you must...

$s = preg_replace('~//<!\[CDATA\[\s*|\s*//\]\]>~', '', $s);

This will remove the whole line containing each tag without messing up the indentation of the enclosed code.

answered Nov 27 '11 at 04:42

Alan Moore

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score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 02 '20 at 16:15

If <![CDATA[ contains some html special character, e.g. &, ", ', <, > and you will work with the rest of the string as it is still XML, you should escape those chars. Otherwise you will make your XML invalid.

function removeCDataFromString(string $string)
{
    return preg_replace_callback(
        '~<!\[CDATA\[(.*)\]\]>~',
        function (array $matches) {
            return htmlspecialchars($matches[1], ENT_QUOTES | ENT_SUBSTITUTE, 'UTF-8');
        },
        $string
    );
}

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 08 '13 at 12:42

2

You can also try,

$s=str_replace(array("//<![CDATA[","//]]>"),"",$s);

answered Nov 08 '13 at 12:42

Rohan Kumar

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score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Jun 09 '14 at 11:37

1

use str_replace() instead of preg_replace() it's lot easier

$var = str_replace('<![CDATA[', '', $var);
$var = str_replace(']]','',$var);
echo $var;

edited Jun 09 '14 at 11:37

Raptor

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366

answered Jul 04 '13 at 13:37

Siddharth

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16

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 30 '16 at 14:35

0

I use like this to remove <![CDATA[]] but on single line now work for me, dont know if for multiple line string.

preg_match_all('/CDATA\[(.*?)\]/', $your_string_before_this, $datas); 
$string_result_after_this = $datas[1][0];

answered Dec 30 '16 at 14:35

Fthr

769
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10

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 12 '17 at 16:43

$nodeText = '<![CDATA[some text]]>';
$text = removeCdataFormat($nodeText);    

public function removeCdataFormat($nodeText)
{
    $regex_replace = array('','');
    $regex_patterns = array(
        '/<!\[CDATA\[/',
        '/\]\]>/'
   );
   return trim(preg_replace($regex_patterns, $regex_replace, $nodeText));
}

How to remove `//`?

8 Answers8

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