How to Quickly Remove Code Comments in Embedded Projects

Methods to Remove Comments from Embedded C Code

Three main approaches are commonly used:

Dedicated comment‑removal tools – Executable utilities can batch‑process files but may alter formatting.

Custom scripts – Writing a script (e.g., in Python) gives full control over which comment styles are stripped and how whitespace is handled.

Editor‑based regular expressions – Most code editors (VS Code, Notepad++) support regex replace across multiple files.

Regular‑expression patterns for C‑style comments

/\*{1,2}[\s\S]*?\*/

//[\s\S]*?

^\s*

These patterns match block comments ( /* … */), line comments ( // …) and empty lines respectively.

Batch removal with Notepad++

Open Find in Files (Ctrl+Shift+F).

Enter the desired regex in Find what (e.g., /\*{1,2}[\s\S]*?\*/) and enable Regular expression mode.

Specify file filters such as *.c;*.h and target directories (e.g., app, bsp, lib).

Click Replace in Files to strip matching comments from all selected files.

This procedure works for any number of source folders and requires only basic familiarity with regular expressions.

Python script example

A minimal script can read each source file, apply the three regexes, and write the cleaned content back. Example skeleton:

import re, pathlib
pattern_block = re.compile(r'/\*{1,2}[\s\S]*?\*/')
pattern_line = re.compile(r'//[\s\S]*?
')
pattern_blank = re.compile(r'^\s*
', re.MULTILINE)
for path in pathlib.Path('src').rglob('*.c'):
    text = path.read_text(encoding='utf-8')
    text = pattern_block.sub('', text)
    text = pattern_line.sub('', text)
    text = pattern_blank.sub('', text)
    path.write_text(text, encoding='utf-8')

Adjust the directory and file extensions as needed.

Removing comments is a safer alternative to deleting entire repositories when preparing code for copyright submission.