@NippurDeLagash when checking ada lexer (LexAda.cxx), it looks like it doesn’t support folding. Cheers Claudia

Hello, @evertdb, @scott-sumner and All, Here is my contribution to the general padding problem, at end of lines. As in the Scott’s solution, above, it uses two consecutive regex S/R So, EvertDB, let’s suppose the original test example, below : ;; 1 ;; 12 ;; 123 ;; 1234 ;; 12345 ;; 123456 ;; 1234567 ;; 12345678 ;; 123456789 ;; 1234567890 ;; 12345678901 ;; 123456789012 ;; 1234567890123 ;; 12345678901234 ;; 123456789012345 ;; 1234567890123456 ;; 12345678901234567 ;; 123456789012345678 ;; 1234567890123456789 ;; 12345678901234567890 ;; 123456789012345678901 As I suppose that the two leading semicolons is the line-comment syntax, in your language, perform, the first S/R, below : SEARCH (?-s)^;;.+ REPLACE $0 ============================== Notes : First, due to the (?-s) syntax, the special dot character will stand, strictly, for any single standard character Then, in the searched part, we’re just looking for two semicolons, at beginning of lines, followed by a non-null amount of standard characters In replacement, we, simply, rewrite the complete searched match, followed with a space character and 30 equal signs. From your example, it happens that the minimum, of equal signs to add, is 21. But, you don’t have to bother about estimating that minimum. Just add a large enough amount of this character, at the end of the replacement regex So, we get the modified text, below : ;; 1 ============================== ;; 12 ============================== ;; 123 ============================== ;; 1234 ============================== ;; 12345 ============================== ;; 123456 ============================== ;; 1234567 ============================== ;; 12345678 ============================== ;; 123456789 ============================== ;; 1234567890 ============================== ;; 12345678901 ============================== ;; 123456789012 ============================== ;; 1234567890123 ============================== ;; 12345678901234 ============================== ;; 123456789012345 ============================== ;; 1234567890123456 ============================== ;; 12345678901234567 ============================== ;; 123456789012345678 ============================== ;; 1234567890123456789 ============================== ;; 12345678901234567890 ============================== ;; 123456789012345678901 ============================== Now, we just have to delete the extra equal signs at the end of each line. To do so, this second S/R needs the number of characters, at beginning of each line, after the two semicolons symbols, which must be preserved ! From your example, below, you can, visually, determine that this number is 24 : ;; foo bar =============== 123456789012345678901234 So, we’ll use the following regex S/R, below : SEARCH (?-s)^;;.{24}\K.+ REPLACE Leave Empty Notes : For the first part (?-s), just refer the notes, above The part ^;;.{24} looks, from beginning of each line ( ^ ), for two semicolons, followed by the next 24 characters Then the part \K resets the regex engine working position and forgets the immediate previous search Therefore, the final regex match, is, simply, .+, which stands for any non-null amount of standard characters, after the absolute location 24, till the end of each line Empty replacement regex means that this ending amount of characters is just deleted IMPORTANT : For this second S/R, due to the \K regex feature, you must, exclusively use the Replace All button ( NOT the step-by-step Replace button ! ) And, we obtain the final text, with a lined-up padding of equal characters, at the end of each line : ;; 1 ===================== ;; 12 ==================== ;; 123 =================== ;; 1234 ================== ;; 12345 ================= ;; 123456 ================ ;; 1234567 =============== ;; 12345678 ============== ;; 123456789 ============= ;; 1234567890 ============ ;; 12345678901 =========== ;; 123456789012 ========== ;; 1234567890123 ========= ;; 12345678901234 ======== ;; 123456789012345 ======= ;; 1234567890123456 ====== ;; 12345678901234567 ===== ;; 123456789012345678 ==== ;; 1234567890123456789 === ;; 12345678901234567890 == ;; 123456789012345678901 = Et voilà ! Finally, EvertDB, to be exact, we need to get rid of any empty comment line, located right above each real comment-line. To that purpose, use the regex S/R, below : SEARCH (?-s)^;;\R(?=^;;.+) REPLACE Leave Empty Notes : For the first part (?-s), just refer the notes, above The part ^;;\R looks for two semicolons, at beginning of each line, immediately followed by End of Line character(s), whatever it is/they are ! The part (?=........) is a positive look-ahead, in other words, a condition which must be true, for an overall match The condition, to respect, is the regex ^;;.+, which represents a non-empty comment line, in your language ( two semicolons, followed by a non-mull amount of standard characters, before the end of the line ) Due to empty replacement, the searched regex ( the null-comment line ) is, simply, deleted Best Regards, guy038 P.S. : For padding characters, at beginning of a list, you may refer to the topic, below : https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/topic/13988/find-replace-issues/5

Hello, @rafał-kowalski, My idea is to find, with a regex, a 00:00:00 time template, ONLY IF it’s followed, further on, by an other 00:00:00 time template and to store this second time template, in a group, for further use in replacement To that purpose, we’ll use a positive look-ahead structure ( a condition which have to be true for an overall match, but which is never part of the final regex ) So, the regex S/R could be : SEARCH (?s)\d\d:\d\d:\d\d(?=.+?(\d\d:\d\d:\d\d)) REPLACE $0 \1 Notes : The first part, (?s), is a modifier, which means that the dot special character stands for any single character ( Standard or EOL ones ) Then the second part, \d\d:\d\d:\d\d, is the final text to find ( a 00:00::00 time template ) Now, the third part,(?=.........), is the positive look-ahead feature, which have to be true Finally, the fourth part, .+?(\d\d:\d\d:\d\d), is the condition to respect : .+? represents the shortest, non-null, range of any character, even split on several lines (\d\d:\d\d:\d\d) is the nearest following 00:00:00 time template, which is stored as group 1, due to the surrounded parentheses In replacement, we re-writes, first, the whole searched string ( $0 ), followed with a space character, and ended with the group 1 ( \1 ), which represents the second time template REMARK : It is important to point out that, when evaluating the condition .+?(\d\d:\d\d:\d\d, inside the look-ahead, the character position, used by the regex engine, is, finally, NOT moved and is still located, right after the last digit of the first time template ( the final regex to look for ), even if, somehow, it had to go ahead, till the end of the second 00:00:00 time template, in order to verify the condition ) So starting with your original text, below : 00:01:11 fdfdfdfdfdfdf 00:02:12 hjhgjjjjjjjjjjg 00:03:22 hgffggggggg 00:04:14 hjghhhghggg This S/R would produce the text, below : 00:01:11 00:02:12 fdfdfdfdfdfdf 00:02:12 00:03:22 hjhgjjjjjjjjjjg 00:03:22 00:04:14 hgffggggggg 00:04:14 hjghhhghggg Et voilà ! Best Regards, guy038

This happens when files are marked as “read-only”, but in that case, you can not make changes because editing is disabled.

I have only a passing knowledge of Python, but since no one else has answered, I think Python or another scripting language would be the only way to do what you want in Notepad++ (and it would probably be fairly simple outside of Notepad++ also). Otherwise, it should be fairly trivial for a moderate spreadsheet user to make these changes in Excel, Open Office, or Google Docs - the hardest part would be importing and exporting the file in the correct format. The only reason I’m not saying Notepad++ is not the tool for the job is that I hear that Notepad++ has the capability to run Python scripts (which I have never used). Otherwise, doing a Find/Replace for each label:value pair, would be rather clunky, and I’d recommend you direct your efforts towards finding a scripting or Excel solution to your problem. Notepad++ can do some awesome things, but math is probably something it will (rightly) never natively be good at. Hope this helps.