$re = '/\n(\/\*[^*]*\*\/)|(\/\/[^*]*)|\n(--[^.].*)/';
$str = 'sql = `HELLO 1
-- comments 1
HELLO 2
-- comments 2
HELLO3
`;';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$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 PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php