Remove SQL comments - sql

Question

our stored procedures have developer comments and headers and as part of our deployment process we would like to remove these from the customer copy. Is there a method of achieving this within SQL Server 2005 or with another tool?

Answer 1

Don't know if it would suit, but you can use the WITH ENCRYPTION option to hide the entire contents. Do your end users need to see/modify any of the procedures?

Answer 2

I use an SQL tool called WinSQL (very handy, highly reccommended) that has an option to "Parse Comments Locally".
I don't use it much personally, but I have had it on accidentally when running my scripts that build my stored procs and it does clean them out of the proc source in the database. :-)
Even the free version has that option.

Answer 3

This option wasn't available when the question was asked, but in SQL 2012, we can now use SQL Server's own parser to help us out.
Removing Comments From SQL

Answer 4

A little late to the party but in case someone else stumbles across...
CREATE FUNCTION [usf_StripSQLComments] ( #CommentedSQLCode VARCHAR(max) )
RETURNS Varchar(max)
/****************************************************************************************
--######################################################################################
-- Mjwheele#yahoo.com -- Some count sheep. Some code. Some write code to count sheep.
--######################################################################################
--#############################################################################
-- Sample Call Script
--#############################################################################
Declare #SqlCode Varchar(Max)
Declare #objname varchar(max) = 'sp_myproc'
select #Sqlcode = OBJECT_DEFINITION(t.OBJECT_ID)
from sys.objects t
where t.name = #objname
select dbo.ssf_StripSQLComments( #Sqlcode )
****************************************************************************************/
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #Sqlcode VARCHAR(MAX) =#CommentedSQLCode
Declare #i integer = 0
Declare #Char1 Char(1)
Declare #Char2 Char(1)
Declare #TrailingComment Char(1) = 'N'
Declare #UncommentedSQLCode varchar(Max)=''
Declare #Whackcounter Integer = 0
Declare #max Integer = DATALENGTH(#sqlcode)
While #i < #max
Begin
Select #Char1 = Substring(#Sqlcode,#i,1)
if #Char1 not in ('-', '/','''','*')
begin
if #Char1 = CHAR(13) or #Char1 = CHAR(10)
Select #TrailingComment = 'N'
Else if not (#Char1 = CHAR(32) or #Char1 = CHAR(9)) and #TrailingComment = 'N' -- Not Space or Tab
Select #TrailingComment = 'Y'
if #Whackcounter = 0
Select #UncommentedSQLCode += #Char1
select #i+=1
end
else
begin
Select #Char2 = #Char1
, #Char1 = Substring(#Sqlcode,#i+1,1)
If #Char1 = '-' and #Char2 = '-' and #Whackcounter = 0
Begin
While #i < #Max and Substring(#Sqlcode,#i,1) not in (char(13), char(10))
Select #i+=1
if Substring(#Sqlcode,#i,1) = char(13) and #TrailingComment = 'N'
Select #i+=1
if Substring(#Sqlcode,#i,1) = char(10) and #TrailingComment = 'N'
Select #i+=1
End
else If #Char1 = '*' and #Char2 = '/'
Begin
Select #Whackcounter += 1
, #i += 2
End
else If #Char1 = '/' and #Char2 = '*'
Begin
Select #Whackcounter -= 1
, #i += 2
End
else if #char2 = '''' and #Whackcounter = 0
begin
Select #UncommentedSQLCode += #char2
while Substring(#Sqlcode,#i,1) <> ''''
Begin
Select #UncommentedSQLCode += Substring(#Sqlcode,#i,1)
, #i +=1
end
Select #i +=1
, #Char1 = Substring(#Sqlcode,#i,1)
end
else
Begin
if #Whackcounter = 0
Select #UncommentedSQLCode += #Char2
Select #i+=1
end
end
End
Return #UncommentedSQLCode
END

Answer 5

You may want to check this out:
Remove Comments from SQL Server Stored Procedures.
Note: this doesn't handle comments that start with --, which SQL Server allows. Otherwise I would inquire into having a developer write a short filter app that reads the text in via a stream, and then remove the comments that way. Or write it yourself.

Answer 6

I ended up writing my own SQL comment remover in C#

Answer 7

I assume you save your procedure definitions to a text or .sql file that you then version control. You could always use something like notepadd++ to find/replace the strings you want then commit them as a production/customer tag. This is not elegant, but an option. I don't know of any third party tools and my google searches returned the same result as the other posters posted.

Answer 8

You can remove comments using regular expressions in C# like described here. It works for line comments, block comments, even when block comments are nested, and it can correctly identify and ignore comments delimiters when they are inside literals or bracketed named identifiers.

Answer 9

This a VB.NET code for removing SQL Coments
It's supposed the script is well formated syntaxicly under SQL Management Studio
Module Module1
Const TagBeginMultiComent = "/*"
Const TagEndMultiComent = "*/"
Const TagMonoComent = "--"
Public Fail As Integer
Function IsQuoteOpened(ByVal Value As String) As Boolean
Dim V As String = Replace(Value, "'", "")
If V Is Nothing Then Return 0
Return ((Value.Length - V.Length) / "'".Length) Mod 2 > 0
End Function
Function RemoveComents(ByVal Value As String) As String
Dim RetVal As String = ""
Dim Block As String
Dim Tampon As String
Dim NbComentIncluded As Integer = 0
Dim QuoteOpened As Boolean
Dim CommentOpen As Boolean
While Value.Length > 0
Tampon = ""
Block = ""
Dim P1 As Integer = InStr(Value, TagBeginMultiComent)
Dim P2 As Integer = InStr(Value, TagEndMultiComent)
Dim P3 As Integer = InStr(Value, TagMonoComent)
Dim Min As Integer
If P1 = 0 Then P1 = Value.Length + 1
If P2 = 0 Then P2 = Value.Length + 1
If P3 = 0 Then P3 = Value.Length + 1
Tampon = ""
If P1 + P2 + P3 > 0 Then
Min = Math.Min(P1, Math.Min(P2, P3))
Tampon = Left(Value, Min - 1)
Block = Mid(Value, Min, 2)
Value = Mid(Value, Min)
End If
If NbComentIncluded = 0 Then QuoteOpened = IsQuoteOpened(RetVal & Tampon)
If Not QuoteOpened Then
NbComentIncluded += -(Block = TagBeginMultiComent) + (Block = TagEndMultiComent)
If Block = TagMonoComent Then
Dim Ploc As Integer = InStr(Value, vbCrLf)
If Ploc = 0 Then
Value = ""
Else
Value = Mid(Value, Ploc - 2)
End If
End If
End If
If Not CommentOpen And NbComentIncluded = 0 Then
RetVal += Tampon
If ({TagBeginMultiComent, TagEndMultiComent, TagMonoComent}.Contains(Block) And QuoteOpened) Or
(Not {TagBeginMultiComent, TagEndMultiComent, TagMonoComent}.Contains(Block) And Not QuoteOpened) Then RetVal += Block
End If
CommentOpen = (NbComentIncluded > 0)
Value = Mid(Value, 3)
End While
Fail = -1 * (IsQuoteOpened(RetVal)) - 2 * (NbComentIncluded > 0)
If Fail <> 0 Then RetVal = ""
Return RetVal
End Function
Sub Main()
Dim InputFileName = "C:\Users\godef\OneDrive - sacd.fr\DEV\DelComentsSql\test.txt" '"C:\Users\sapgy01\OneDrive - sacd.fr\DEV\DelComentsSql\test.txt"
Dim Script As String = File.ReadAllText(InputFileName)
Dim InputDataArray As String() = Split(Script, vbCrLf)
Script = RemoveComents(Script)
If Fail Then
Console.WriteLine($"Fail : {Fail}")
If Fail And 1 = 1 Then Console.WriteLine("Toutes les quotes ne sont pas refermées")
If Fail And 2 = 2 Then Console.WriteLine("Tous les commentaires multiliqnes ne sont pas refermées")
Else
Console.WriteLine(Script)
End If
Console.ReadKey()
End Sub
End Module
Addon : a check is made for unclosed multilines coment and/or unclosed apostroph.
Example :
/* Commentaire principal
Suite du commentaire principal
/* Inclusion de commentaire
Suite du commentaire inclu
*/ suite commentaire principal
continuation commentaire principal
/* mono comentaire tagué multi lignes */
*/ select * from ref
-- mono commentaire
select ref.ref_lbl_code as 'code
de
la
-- ref --
' -- from ref as 'references' -- Fin de séquence
from ref as reference -- Mono commentaire fin de ligne
go -- lance l'exécution
select dbo.ref.REF_LBL_CODE as 'commentaire
/* Mulitlignes sur une ligne dans litteral */'
from ref as 'table_ref'
select ref.ref_lbl_code as 'commentaire
/* Mulitlignes
sur plusieurs lignes
dans litteral */'
from ref as '-- ref_table --'
-- Fin de l'exécution du ' -- script -- '