Python Regex match multiline Java annotation

Question

I am trying to take advantage of JAXB code generation from a XML Schema to use in an Android project through SimpleXML library, which uses another type of Assertion than JAXB (I do not want to include a 9MB lib tu support JAXB in my Android project). See question previously asked

Basically, I am writing a small Python script to perform the required changes on each Java file generated through the xcj tool, and so far it is working for import deletion/modification, simple line annotation, and also the annotation for which a List @XMLElement needs to be converted to an @ElementList one.

The only issue I am facing right now is for removing annotations on several lines, such as @XMLSeeAlso or @XMLType like the following

@XmlType(name = "AnimatedPictureType", propOrder = {
    "resources",
    "animation",
    "caption"
})

or

@XmlSeeAlso({
    BackgroundRGBColorType.class,
    ForegroundRGBColorType.class
})

I tried different strategies using either Multineline, DotAll, or both, but without any success. I am new to "advanced" regex usage as well as Python so I am probably missing something silly.

For my simple XSD processing that is the only step I cannot get running to achieve a fully automated script using xcj and then automatically convert JAXB annotations into Simple XML ones.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Answer 1

@Xml.*\\}\\) with dotall enabled should as far as i know match any annotation starting with @Xml and ending with "})", even when it is multiline.

For a good view of what your regex actually matches you could always test your regular expressions at websites like https://pythex.org/