How to convert C89 style comments to C99
Published in
Jun 5, 2021
Three regexp replace operations in Vim suffice to convert C89 into C99/C++ style comments.
1. Remove */
%s/\*\///2. Replace /* by //
%s/\/\*/\/\//3. Replace <SPACE>*<SPACE> by //<SPACE>
%s/ \* /\/\/ /
You can put that inside a function in your home .vimrc
file if you need to refactor several source files:
" CONVERT C89 TO C99 COMMENTS
func! C89toC99()
%s/\*\///
%s/\/\*/\/\//
%s/ \* /\/\/ /
endfunc
And then invoke it in vim:
call C89toC99()
Despite it is not a fully tested conversion method (it will let some blank lines here and there and it might not capture all your inner *
characters it will still likely save you 95% of the required time to do the change manually.