.TH erl_comment_scan 3erl "syntax_tools 3.1" "" "Erlang Module Definition"
.SH NAME
erl_comment_scan \- Functions for reading comment lines from Erlang source code.
.SH DESCRIPTION
.LP
Functions for reading comment lines from Erlang source code\&.
.SH "DATA TYPES"

.RS 2
.TP 2
.B
comment() = {Line::integer(), Column::integer(), Indentation::integer(), Text::[string()]}:

.TP 2
.B
commentLine() = {Line::integer(), Column::integer(), Indent::integer(), Text::string()}:

.RE
.SH EXPORTS
.LP
.B
file(Name::file:filename()) -> [comment()]
.br
.RS
.LP
Extracts comments from an Erlang source code file\&. Returns a list of entries representing \fImulti-line\fR\& comments, listed in order of increasing line-numbers\&. For each entry, \fIText\fR\& is a list of strings representing the consecutive comment lines in top-down order; the strings contain \fIall\fR\& characters following (but not including) the first comment-introducing \fI%\fR\& character on the line, up to (but not including) the line-terminating newline\&.
.LP
Furthermore, \fILine\fR\& is the line number and \fIColumn\fR\& the left column of the comment (i\&.e\&., the column of the comment-introducing \fI%\fR\& character)\&. \fIIndent\fR\& is the indentation (or padding), measured in character positions between the last non-whitespace character before the comment (or the left margin), and the left column of the comment\&. \fILine\fR\& and \fIColumn\fR\& are always positive integers, and \fIIndentation\fR\& is a nonnegative integer\&.
.LP
Evaluation exits with reason \fI{read, Reason}\fR\& if a read error occurred, where \fIReason\fR\& is an atom corresponding to a Posix error code; see the module file(3erl) for details\&.
.RE

.LP
.B
join_lines(Lines::[commentLine()]) -> [comment()]
.br
.RS
.LP
Joins individual comment lines into multi-line comments\&. The input is a list of entries representing individual comment lines, \fIin order of decreasing line-numbers\fR\&; see scan_lines/1 for details\&. The result is a list of entries representing \fImulti-line\fR\& comments, \fIstill listed in order of decreasing line-numbers\fR\&, but where for each entry, \fIText\fR\& is a list of consecutive comment lines in order of \fIincreasing\fR\& line-numbers (i\&.e\&., top-down)\&.
.LP
\fISee also:\fR\& scan_lines/1\&.
.RE

.LP
.B
scan_lines(Text::string()) -> [commentLine()]
.br
.RS
.LP
Extracts individual comment lines from a source code string\&. Returns a list of comment lines found in the text, listed in order of \fIdecreasing\fR\& line-numbers, i\&.e\&., the last comment line in the input is first in the resulting list\&. \fIText\fR\& is a single string, containing all characters following (but not including) the first comment-introducing \fI%\fR\& character on the line, up to (but not including) the line-terminating newline\&. For details on \fILine\fR\&, \fIColumn\fR\& and \fIIndent\fR\&, see file/1\&.
.RE

.LP
.B
string(Text::string()) -> [comment()]
.br
.RS
.LP
Extracts comments from a string containing Erlang source code\&. Except for reading directly from a string, the behaviour is the same as for file/1\&.
.LP
\fISee also:\fR\& file/1\&.
.RE

.SH AUTHORS
.LP
Richard Carlsson
.I
<carlsson\&.richard@gmail\&.com>