Replacing Duped Words across a block block of text, respecting {}

[guy038]

Hi, Marc,

I don’t give up :-)) Just making numerous tests. It should be OK, very soon…

guy038

[Marc Lalonde]

would it be better if you could see exactly what im trying to work with to make the script? I would be willing to link Via team-viewer (https://www.teamviewer.com/en/) so you have a better idea of exactly is needed, still got some 1100 duplicates still to hunt down. fyi im still stuck behind the 2 rep wall of only 20 mins between posts >.<

[guy038]

Hello, @marc-Lalonde and All,

I think that my new version should be very close to to your needs ! Just try it out :-)

So, assuming the following hypotheses :

• Names with one word of two word character, minimum or with several words, separated with, at least, one space character, possibly surrounded by double-quotes

• Names are preceded with, at least, one space char or are located at the beginning of a line

• Names are followed with , at least, one space char or are located at the end of a line

• Each block of names is embedded in a {.........} block, in a single line or split on several lines

• If a name is preceded of followed with a brace, one space character, at least, must separate them

Then, the correct version for removing duplicates names of each block, only, should be :

SEARCH (?s-i)(?:^|\x20+)("?)(\w[\w ]*\w)\1(?=(?:\x20+|\R)(?:[^{}]*(?:\x20+|\R))?("?)\2\3(?:\x20|\R))

---

Remark :

Compared to my previous version, this regex is more complex. Son for a best understanding, here is the equivalent version, with the free-spacing regex mode, which allows to insert non-significant space characters, in the regex !

SEARCH (?xs-i) (?: ^|\x20+) ("?) (\w[\w ]*\w) \1 (?= (?: \x20+|\r?\n) (?: [^{}]* (?: \x20+|\r?\n) )? ("?) \2 \3 (?: \x20|\r?\n) )

---

So given, for instance, the initial text below :

{
123 123 654
 321 456
 999 852 666 "852"
 123
}

{
 123 654 222 333 999
 852 "999" 456 123
 000 "123 654" "999"
}

{
 "123 654" 555 "111"
 852 111 "123" "000"
 999 "333" "123 654" 000 333
}

{
111 789
789
789 222
333 789 444
}
{
555 "789"
"789"
"789" 666
777 "789" 888
}

{            3456      "3456"      3456       }

{ "6789" 6789 "6789" }

{
 "456" "12 34 56" 456 "123" "456" 123 "12 34 56" 789
}

We get the following text :

{
 654
 321 456
 999 666 "852"
 123
}

{
 222 333
 852 456 123
 000 "123 654" "999"
}

{
 555
 852 111 "123"
 999 "123 654" 000 333
}

{
111

 222
333 789 444
}
{
555

 666
777 "789" 888
}

{      3456       }

{ "6789" }

{
 "456" 123 "12 34 56" 789
}

Waooooooo ! This regex totally drained me ;-))

Cheers,

guy038

[Marc Lalonde]

That got almost All of my goal, one more small effort should finish this. Here is a screenshot of the full file structure, the only things i see it missing right now, is at the very start of the line, (Reference to the right screen/side) which is 3-4 tabs in. didnt think that would be an issue but its seeming to be. Other than that, it got all 19 alone in this section.

https://imgur.com/a/MO0dV

One hell of a job so far, this will get me able to finish this tonight likely (even with just this script part) myself and i very much appreciate the help.

[Marc Lalonde]

At the very least, as i just ran the extended script above on all my files, 1100 errors down to all of 115 in one click. I owe you a drink :D

Only things its missing right now, are the start of lines, 2-3 tabs in (reference screenshot above) and ones with punctuation mid word. EG: Abu’l-Ghazi

But if its just 115 errors, i can handle that without much more work :D

Again i cant thank you enough, and ill be sharing this script with a fellow person having to deal with a very similar issue.

[guy038]

@marc-Lalonde and All,

Ah, I see ! So, I just changed the \x20+ syntax with the \h+ one, to include tabulations and No-Break space characters as possible separators

Secondly, in order to consider the apostrophe ' and the hyphen - as possible word character, I changed the syntax (\w[\w ]*\w) with the (\w[\w '-]*\w) one !

So, the final version of the regex is, from now on :

SEARCH (?s-i)(?:^|\h+)("?)(\w[\w '-]*\w)\1(?=(?:\h+|\R)(?:[^{}]*(?:\h+|\R))?("?)\2\3(?:\h|\R))

and, with the free-spacing mode, which allows to identify the different parts of this regex, it gives :

SEARCH (?xs-i) (?: ^|\h+) ("?) (\w[\w '-]*\w) \1 (?= (?: \h+|\r?\n) (?: [^{}]* (?: \h+|\r?\n) )? ("?) \2 \3 (?: \h|\r?\n) )

---

Just tell me if other characters, than the apostrophe, the hyphen and the space characters, may exist in your list of names :-))

Cheers

guy038

P.S. :

Note that, with the free-spacing regex (?x), the \R syntax is forbidden ! So, I changed it by the usual \r?\n syntax !

[Marc Lalonde]

Luckily late last night i realized i somehow blanked a file relating to this so i had a fresh copy to hit with the most recent revision. It tagged 1600 dupes. Running my validator over it, catches four different occurrences it failed. totaling just 20 errors.

Instances it failed.
__
“Ko cheng”

location, start of line after tabs, its twin was second from end of same line
__
This one i imagine will be a bit tricky :/ (if even possible)

ZhanYong,

Location anywhere, its twin has the Y lowercase instead.
__
'Abd

Location anywhere, culprit probably punctuation at start
__
cont.

Location anywhere, Probably reverse reason as above
__
Cheers. and Ive spread the one from last night to a few people, they pass their thanks to you for this. it saves so much time

[guy038]

Hello, @marc-lalonde,

OK ! So, I changed the part of the regex , (\w[\w '-]*\w), responsible of matching the name, that is to be deleted. The new regex is ['.,]?(\w[\w '.-]*\w)['.,]?, which means that a name :

• Begins with a word character, possibly preceded by an apostrophe ( ' ), a dot ( . ) or a comma (,) symbols

• Contains, afterwards, a sequence, possibly empty of word characters or an apostrophe ( ' ) , a dot ( . ), an hyphen ( - ) or a space symbol

• And ends with with a word character, possibly followed by an apostrophe ( ' ), a dot ( . ) or a comma ( , ) symbols

---

Only the inner part, beginning and ending with a word character, is considered as the group 2, which must occur, further on, a second time. Note also, that names, with some leading or trailing symbols, may be surrounded, again, by double quotes, thanks to the syntax : ("?)['.,]?(\w[\w '.-]*\w)['.,]?\1

On the other hand, it’s important to point pout that the duplicate name matched, with the regex ("?)['.,]?\2['.,]?\3 :

• Can have leading or trailing symbols, different from the first occurrence, to be deleted

• Can be surrounded, or not, with double quotes, independently, too, from the first occurrence, to be deleted

---

To end with, the names, with a single double-quote ( as "xxxx or yyyy" ) are considered as invalid entities. Indeed, let’s suppose the initial text, below :

{ 000 "123 555 456" 999 "123 456" 789 }

If names must be surrounded with double-quotes, or not, we get the same text, as there is no duplicate :

{ 000 "123 555 456" 999 "123 456" 789 }

If names as "123 or 456" were allowed, we would get the wrong text, below :

{ 000 555 999 "123 456" 789 }

---

So Marc, the new regex, below, should, correctly, miss very few names ;-)) And, thus, get rid of the great majority of the duplicates !

SEARCH (?si)(?:^|\h+)("?)['.,]?(\w[\w '.-]*\w)['.,]?\1(?=(?:\h+|\R)(?:[^{}]*(?:\h+|\R))?("?)['.,]?\2['.,]?\3(?:\h|\R))

---

And, with the free-spacing mode, which allows to identify the different parts of this regex, it gives :

SEARCH (?xsi) (?: ^|\h+) ("?) ['.,]? ( \w[\w '.-]*\w ) ['.,]? \1 (?= (?: \h+|\r?\n) (?: [^{}]* (?: \h+|\r?\n) )? ("?) ['.,]? \2 ['.,]? \3 (?: \h|\r?\n) )

---

Oh, I forgot to say that the search, is, from now on, insensitive to the case, due to the modifiers syntax (?is), at beginning of the regex. So, assuming the text :

{ ZhanYong Zhanyong }

The first word would, indeed, be a duplicate of the second one ans, thus deleted !

Best Regards,

guy038

[Marc Lalonde]

Since i finished my files, I just took the main original version and first ran it though the validator, 1876 errors, after running the script over it and validator. It got every single one. Only one Minor minor issue that doesn’t really have to be fixed, is it strips the last two closing } brackets at the very end of the file, that takes all of 5 seconds to re-add, i consider this a completed script. I very much appreciate the help for the last 24 hours, it probably saved me double if not more.

[Marc Lalonde]

@guy038 For some reason this script has stopped working for me… its now just wiping the entire file.

Find what : (?si)(?:^|\h+)(“?)['.,]?(\w[\w '.-]\w)['.,]?\1(?=(?:\h+|\R)(?:[^{}](?:\h+|\R))?(”?)[‘.,]?\2[’.,]?\3(?:\h|\R))
replacing with nothing

wrap around
regular expression

and its blanking the file… (replace all: 1 occurrence was replaced)

---

nvm ?..? seems a extra space worked into the code…

[guy038]

Hi, Marc and All,

IMHO, I supposed that your current file contains too much data ! I, very often, verified that complicated regexes totally fail when applied to huge amounts of text with the result that, only, one wrong match of all the file contents, occurs :-((

May be, try to slice your file in smaller parts ! It could help ?!

Generally, this problem often occurs when using recursion feature in regexes. But, it’s quite difficult to fully understand the limitations of the Boost regex engine, used in N++ !

Cheers,

guy038