re = /((?<!\\)(?:\\\\)*)%.*/m
str = '\\usepackage{test}%COMMENT1
TEXT
%COMMENT2
TEXT
Value is 10\\%, this should not be removed. %COMMENT3
begin{tikz}[
important 1,
%COMMENT4
important 2, %COMMENT5
]
TEXT
%COMMENT 6
TEXT
Table: value1&value2\\\\%COMMENT7
Table: value1&value2\\\\ %COMMENT8
Table: value1&value2 \\\\%COMMENT 9
Table: value1&value2\\\\% COMMENT 10
Table: value1&value2\\\\\\\\%COMMENT11 '
subst = '$1'
result = str.gsub(re, subst)
# Print the result of the substitution
puts result
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Ruby, please visit: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Regexp.html