# If you'd like to omit non-matching lines from the result; add ';d' to the end of the expression.
sed -E 's/["'`][^"'`]*(?!\\)["'`](*SKIP)(*F) # Make sure we're not matching inside of quotes, double quotes or backticks
|(?m-s:\s*(?:\-{2}|\#)[^\n]*$) # Single line comment
|(?:
\\/\*.*?\*\\/ # Multi-line comment
(?(?=(?m-s:[\t ]+$)) # Get trailing whitespace if any exists and only if it's the rest of the line
[\t ]+
)
)//gxs;t' <<< "SELECT `#comment inside string`;"
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 SED, please visit: https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manual/html_node/The-_0022s_0022-Command.html