How to change/convert the format of a timestamp?

Dana Wright

Hi,

I could use some help please.

I need to convert the format of timestamps in a text file as follows:

From old format:
78:08.706 --> 78:18.550

To new format:
01:18:08.706 --> 01:18:10.550

Is this possible in Notepad++? I’m using version v7.5.1 (32-bit)

Thanks in advance for any help.

Eko palypse

@Dana-Wright

do you have some reference about what kind of timestamp (the old one) this is?
Or do you know the min and max values?

Alan Kilborn

I smell math, which means it isn’t really practical for N++ doing it. :)

Meta Chuh

@Alan-Kilborn
it is using python script … or isn’t it ;-)

@Dana-Wright

it should be possible with the python script plugin, eg.
use regex to find the time stamps, divide 78 by 60 to get the $hours, and old minutes minus (60*$hours) to get the new minutes

but i lack py knowledge, so if you need more help on that, we’d need help from our python script gurus ;-)

Dana Wright

Here’s a link to the file in question.

Alan Kilborn

@Meta-Chuh

Oh sure, easy to script (if full spec is known, see Eko’s comment), but I think the typical reaction to installing a plugin, and then writing (or just copying prewritten) code is lukewarm from most users that just wanna get something done quickly. :)

Even regex probably generates such feelings (for the uninitiated) but at least that is built-in.

Dana Wright

Sorry, forgot to mention that it’s only after the 1 hour mark that the format changes.

Eko palypse

So, as @Alan-Kilborn already pointed out this is nothing npp can do with its builtin methods but
if you are willing to install the python script plugin, then it should be easily possible to write a little
script.
One further question if you don’t mind.
Did you already change the format in the document?
It begins with hour:minute:second.milliseconds but then it changes to minute:seconds.milliseconds.
The question basically is, is it safe to assume that the time format initially is always minute:seconds.milliseconds.

Dana Wright

@Eko-palypse the correct time format should always be hour:minute:second.milliseconds.

Meta Chuh

@Dana-Wright
and the source format is always minutes:second.millisecond, correct ?
or can it be mixed with some lines that are having h:m:s.ms ?

Dana Wright

@Eko-palypse the correct time format should always be hour:hour:minute:second.milliseconds

Originally the file was auto created. My job was to correct the text and punctuation and adjust the timestamp as needed.

I used a program called Transcribe! for this. It has the ability to copy/paste a timestamp but only in the following format: minute:second.milliseconds

When it was under an hour it was easy to simply replace the correct time by pasting the updated timestamp after the hour.

However, after an hour the format completely changed. Since Transcribe! does not use a separate number for the hour. I hope that’s clear.

So, instead of giving me this: 01:18:13.201
It gave me this: 78:08.168

So I want to convert all the timestamps over the hour point from this 78:08.168 to this 01:18:13.201

PeterJones

You might want to search the forum for more about timestamps and/or captioning files (I am assuming this is an .srt or similar captioning file), because I know similar things have been asked.

I know there’s a conditional replace that @guy038 could bring to the party. I couldn’t get the syntax working correctly.
Without the conditionals, I can do it in n search/replace operations, where n depends on the possible minutes: if minutes is 60-99, then I can do it in 4 s/r (6x, 7x, 8x, 9x). If minutes can ever start at 100 or above, my method would need to increase n for every 10-minute group above the 9x.

assuming

that we only ever edit the minutes and append an hours segment when necessary (ie, don’t ever have to fix invalid seconds)
that 0:00.000 up to 59:59.999 will remain unchanged

The search/replace pairs (in regular expression mode) would be

(?<![:\d\.])(6)(\d{1}:\d{2}\.\d{3})
01:0$2
(?<![:\d\.])(7)(\d{1}:\d{2}\.\d{3})
01:1$2
(?<![:\d\.])(8)(\d{1}:\d{2}\.\d{3})
01:2$2
(?<![:\d\.])(9)(\d{1}:\d{2}\.\d{3})
01:3$2

If it goes higher, you can give it a try yourself, and paste what you tried if it didn’t work.

Honestly, if this were mine, I’d write up a Perl script to do it, completely outside of Notepad++. Others would choose Python or Lua. I could probably cobble it together in PythonScript, to have python make the changes, running inside Notepad++ editor window. But I don’t have time right now to do it, and I think I’ll wait until you’ve responded to the questions and clarifications, and maybe shown that you’ve tried to look for previous answers

Eko palypse

@Dana-Wright

sorry, not 100% clear for me - what is the format I should expect to convert.
I understand the result should be 01:18:14.269 --> 01:18:21.079
but which format is provided initially?
This 00:78:14.269 --> 00:78:21.079 or
that 78:14.269 --> 78:21.079?

Dana Wright

Sorry for the confusion. To hopefully clarify things, here’s an updated file with only timestamps that need to be converted. Please ignore the earlier file

Eko palypse

@Dana-Wright

I guess this python script should do the job

def change_format(m):
    parts = m.group(0).split(':')
    min = int(parts[0])
    if min > 60:
        real_minute = min % 60
        hours = min / 60
        return '{:02}:{:02}:{}'.format(hours, real_minute, parts[1])
    else:
        return '{}:{}'.format(*parts[:])
    
    
editor.rereplace('\d+:\d+\.\d+',change_format)

Dana Wright

@Eko-palypse thanks. I’ll give it a try.

Dana Wright

@Eko-palypse Worked like a charm! Thank you very much!

Now I need to analyze this and figure it out how it was done.

Eko palypse

@Dana-Wright

this is quite easy.
editor is a object exposed by pythonscript plugin which can manipulate the scintilla component used by notepad++.
rereplace is the method which allows to have the first parameter being a regular expression and
the second parameter being a function which is called for each match of the regex.

The function change_format gets the match object in variable m
As no regular expression matching group has been defined everything should be accessible in group 0.
parts = m.group(0).split(':')
split what has been reported in match object by colon and return a list in variable parts
min = int(parts[0])
take the first element in that list and convert it to an integer, save it in variable min
if min > 60:
if min greater than 60 we need to do something, if not else branch gets executed
real_minute = min % 60
real_minute will get the remainder of division by 60
hours = min / 60
hours the result of division by 60
return '{:02}:{:02}:{}'.format(hours, real_minute, parts[1])
return the new string.
:02 means that we want to have it in two digit format 1->01 but 10->10 …
That’s it.

Alan Kilborn

@Eko-palypse said:

That’s it.

Well…you didn’t explain the else part, and that’s where I have a question. I would do it this way and I don’t know why you did it differently:

return '{}:{}'.format(*parts)

I just had the thought that it would be nice if editor.rereplace() would take a replace function returning None as a signal to not do any replacement.

Eko palypse

you are absolutely correct - this survived the test when having hh::mm::ss::msec :-)
But python slicing is rescuing me :-D

I don’t understand the none return - I mean, why would you want to replace something with None
where None means don’t replace anything? Which case do you have in mind?