def strip_comments(inStr):
    stringLiteral = False
    for i in xrange(len(inStr)):
        if inStr[i] == "\"" and (i == 0 or inStr[i - 1] != "\\"):
            stringLiteral = not stringLiteral
        elif not stringLiteral and inStr[i] == "#":
            return inStr[:i]
    return inStr

print strip_comments('Hello. "This is not a # comment", but # this is')