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    how is npp's regex different from https://regex101.com/ regex?

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    • Meta ChuhM
      Meta Chuh moderator @Alan Kilborn
      last edited by Meta Chuh

      @Alan-Kilborn

      It may be worth noting …

      maybe, but maybe not for @V-S-Rawat.

      the last time i gave him an extensive answer, about how to test notepad++ commits, he politely slowed me down a bit and said, that it was too much information for him.

      so i stick to the minimised information that might be of relevance for him, always knowing that he will ask if he needs anything more.

      i quote:

      @V-S-Rawat said: (By any chance, are you believing me to be a computer wizard? Wrong assumption, dear sir :-) )

      Alan KilbornA V S RawatV 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
      • Alan KilbornA
        Alan Kilborn @Meta Chuh
        last edited by

        @Meta-Chuh

        Well, we are also posting for others that might see and learn something, not just the OP. :)

        Meta ChuhM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • Meta ChuhM
          Meta Chuh moderator @Alan Kilborn
          last edited by

          @Alan-Kilborn

          i just try to avoid getting reprehended again by trying to learn how to correctly respond to users i know 😉

          note: if you want it to address it to all others, you can add “and all” as a suffix to the @Meta-Chuh tag, or, if it is originally not meant for me, don’t use my tag at all.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • Alan KilbornA
            Alan Kilborn
            last edited by

            @Meta-Chuh (meant for you!):

            Sure. If it is in direct reply to something you pointed out, I hit the small reply next to your posting. If it is a generic reply, I press the blue Reply button below all postings. I think “and all” might be a bit redundant, as anybody interested can read any reply without being directly invited to. :)

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
            • V S RawatV
              V S Rawat @Alan Kilborn
              last edited by

              @Alan-Kilborn Yes, I was looking for some free site which gives regex testing totally compatible with npp. :-(

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • V S RawatV
                V S Rawat @Eko palypse
                last edited by

                @Eko-palypse I am newbie to regex so I face problem in formulating them.

                npp doesn’t provide any help in developing a regex as it doesn’t tell what is wrong where.

                I wanted some site like the one mentioned that would give regex that would run 100% “as such” in npp.

                As that site is also having a “python” flavor of regex mentioned, I think pythonscript plugin’s regex would also be different from regex that would run from npp’s default find replace.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • V S RawatV
                  V S Rawat @Meta Chuh
                  last edited by

                  @Meta-Chuh said:

                  @V-S-Rawat

                  the main difference, which might be relevant to you, as i’ve seen in the past, is the /.

                  in pcre/php, a regex is usually started and ended with a “/” as delimiter, followed by modifiers m, s, i, etc.
                  (you can find an explanation of pcre modifiers >>> here <<< )
                  example of a pcre regex string: /^(.*?)search_string(.*?)$/msi

                  therefore all / used in your regex search have to be escaped as \/ if you use it in pcre

                  in notepad++ your input field is just the pure regex that would be inside the two / of pcre, and modifiers are usually set separately, like checking of match case instead of leaving out the i in the pcre regex string.

                  as you just input the pure regex, without delimiters or modifiers in the npp search field, it’s best to watch out for all occurrences of an escaped \/ and replace them with an unescaped /

                  so a pcre search string like:
                  /^(.*?)my\/path\/to\/my.exe/msi

                  would have to be adapted for notepad++ like this:
                  ^(.*?)my/path/to/my.exe

                  Yes, that was the main difference I had observed. Clarifying that was indeed helpful.

                  Thanks.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • V S RawatV
                    V S Rawat @Meta Chuh
                    last edited by

                    @Meta-Chuh said:

                    the last time i gave him an extensive answer, about how to test notepad++ commits, he politely slowed me down a bit and said, that it was too much information for him.

                    :-) Sorry for that. I am a newbie at regex, and my growing age is blunting my quick learning. Smaller bites help me. :-)

                    Thanks for considerations.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • V S RawatV
                      V S Rawat
                      last edited by

                      That brings me to an idea.

                      I assume that these regex libraries are available ready to be compiled with apps and are for free.

                      In that case, can boost regex library be removed from npp and can npp be compiled with other such libraries?

                      Can a user do it if npp code is available?

                      Or can I ask for this a new feature in regex that npp is compiled will “ALL” libraries of regex, and find/ replace window gets a new option of "what type of regex (“PCRE/ Pyton/ Java/…)?”

                      That will probably make npp the only editor that has option to use all types of regex at the tick of a check box.

                      What would be pros and cons of that?

                      Meta ChuhM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • V S RawatV
                        V S Rawat
                        last edited by

                        Also, as @Eko-palypse shared above, pythonscript provides its own regex tester, which is different from npp’s default boost regex library,

                        so, can flavors of all type of regex libraries be supplied as a plug-in (or one for one plug-in) to be used with npp?

                        I can’t do that, maybe a hint for plug-in developers.

                        Eko palypseE 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • Meta ChuhM
                          Meta Chuh moderator @V S Rawat
                          last edited by

                          @V-S-Rawat

                          btw: @MAPJe71 recently posted a free offline regex tester tool.

                          @MAPJe71 wrote: Additional Regex Tester tool (offline): RegEx Tester

                          maybe this tool can be of interest for you too.

                          V S RawatV 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • V S RawatV
                            V S Rawat @Meta Chuh
                            last edited by

                            @Meta-Chuh promptly downloaded that. shall test when next requirement comes up.

                            maybe, npp developers can crack an arrangement with @MAPJe71 to bundle the tester zipfile with npp installer.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • Eko palypseE
                              Eko palypse @V S Rawat
                              last edited by Eko palypse

                              @V-S-Rawat said:

                              Also, as @Eko-palypse shared above, pythonscript provides its own regex tester, which is different from npp’s default boost regex library,

                              True, but the closest you can get at the moment - as far as I know.
                              One question you haven’t answered, or I have over read, is what you are doing with the regex at the end.
                              If you use the find replace dialog then non of the solution will 100% fit and the closest might be
                              the RegexTester from PythonScript plugin.
                              If you want to use the regex within a PythonScript plugin then RegexTester matches 100% .

                              The idea of having all regex engines in one product is a nice idea but doesn’t guarantee it is always
                              like it is in npp. Just a note, C++ (14/17 ??) has now its own regex engine as well.

                              Alan KilbornA V S RawatV 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • Alan KilbornA
                                Alan Kilborn @Eko palypse
                                last edited by

                                @Eko-palypse said:

                                If you want to use the regex within a PythonScript plugin then RegexTester matches 100%

                                This is because RegexTester is written in Pythonscript itself, and calls the regex engine of Pythonscript, which is NOT the Python regex engine.

                                I have done some research and it is my understanding from reading some earlier postings here as well as the product description, that Regex Buddy is the best regex tester, but it is not free. It can directly use the Boost regex engine that is a close to what is in Notepad++ as one can get. Regarding not free: It depends how much time you waste having regex problems currently. It does not take much time of that sort before such a program pays for itself. And so we’re clear, I have no affiliation with Regex buddy.

                                Meta ChuhM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
                                • Meta ChuhM
                                  Meta Chuh moderator @Alan Kilborn
                                  last edited by

                                  off topic, but important: @Alan-Kilborn

                                  could you please have a look at this topic link below ?

                                  https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/topic/17072/new-enhancement-for-user-defined-language-system/15

                                  this is very strange, as the nodebb db got scrambled somehow.
                                  it was the topic where we were talking about udl manuals, and one of your posts disappeared.

                                  further more, the id’s got mixed up and out of alignment, so that instead of your post, we see rddim.

                                  and most weird thing: my answer to your post has your name now, which is completely out of context.

                                  afaik i suppose that it wasn’t done by the mods, as there was no reason what so ever to delete any of the posts, especially not yours.

                                  did you by any chance accidentally or willingly delete it yourself ?
                                  if yes, there could be some sort of bbs db bug.

                                  note: please don’t delete this “hybrid post mixup”, because it is not yet known, if someone might need it for any investigations.
                                  i’ve already notified don & co. about that.

                                  Alan KilbornA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • Alan KilbornA
                                    Alan Kilborn @Meta Chuh
                                    last edited by

                                    @Meta-Chuh

                                    Strange indeed. I deleted nothing, accidentally or willingly. I do now see that a posting that is clearly authored by you is attributed to me. Maybe I look smart now. :)

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                                    • V S RawatV
                                      V S Rawat @Eko palypse
                                      last edited by

                                      @Eko-palypse

                                      I use regex in npp as a normal text cleaning. removing unwanted text, breaking lines at certain places “, ; . etc.”, joining them back after certain processing.

                                      I don’t use regex in pythonscript, because I don’t know much of pythonscript.

                                      several things I do is repetitive, I have to do the same set, with slight changes for numbers, etc., to break the text again and again, and join back again and again after processing, that’s why I had thought to make pythonscripts for repeated use, and I had installed the plugin.

                                      But I tried for somedays and couldn’t make much headway so I gave up. Now only one pythonscript is there for repeated things.

                                      some day I will gather courage again to learn pythonscript, till then it is find-replace regex on text.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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