Multiple copy/paste notepad++

Rafał Kowalski

In notepad++ I mark Options->Preferences->Editing->Multi-Editing Settings.Now with Ctrl I can multi select and copy time (in this example) 00:02:12 and 00:03:22 and 00:04:14 but how paste them next to line above (multiple copy and paste)

Now I have:
1 00:01:11
2 fdfdfdfdfdfdf
3
4 00:02:12
5
6 hjhgjjjjjjjjjjg
7 00:03:22
8
9 hgffggggggg
10
11 00:04:14
12 hjghhhghggg
…

I want to have:
**1 00:01:11 00:02:12
2 fdfdfdfdfdfdf
3
4 00:02:12 00:03:22
5
6 hjhgjjjjjjjjjjg
7 00:03:22 00:04:14
8
9 hgffggggggg
10
11 00:04:14
12 hjghhhghggg

…**
Maybe You have other ideas how to faster copy/paste this time (00:00:00) from line to line?

Alan Kilborn

@Rafał-Kowalski said:

Maybe You have other ideas how to faster copy/paste this time (00:00:00) from line to line

Yep. Forget Notepad++ and write a program to do it.

Scott Sumner

@Rafał-Kowalski , @Alan-Kilborn

A viable technique for doing this sort of thing within Notepad++ (and without a programming language) may be found in this thread: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/topic/13995/find-and-replace-timecode-srt

It would need to be adapted slightly, but the hardest part is already figured out.

guy038

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