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    Delete lines in multiple text/DAT files that contain specific characters

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    • Adam BowskyA
      Adam Bowsky
      last edited by

      I think that only works in a single file at a time… there is no option to do that in the Find in Files tab. I am a novice, sorry.

      Alan KilbornA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • supasillyassS
        supasillyass @Adam Bowsky
        last edited by

        @Adam-Bowsky

        1. Search
        2. Find in Files…
        3. Search Mode: Regular expression
        4. Find what: \r\n[ ]*.N90-.*00000000$ (Windows EOL)
        5. Replace with: (empty string)
        6. Set file filters and directory as appropriate
        7. Replace in Files
        Adam BowskyA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
        • Alan KilbornA
          Alan Kilborn @Adam Bowsky
          last edited by

          @Adam-Bowsky

          Oh, sorry I missed the multi-file aspect of your question! Must not be my day.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Adam BowskyA
            Adam Bowsky @supasillyass
            last edited by

            @supasillyass It worked! thank you!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Adam BowskyA
              Adam Bowsky
              last edited by

              @supasillyass It worked for files that had 1 digit in front of the text. Some of the files have 2, 3, and 4 digits, EX:

              11N90-SS9035X 00000000
              311N90-SS9035X 00000000
              6001N90-SS9035X 00000000

              Unfortunately, I am not sure of what the switches do, or if there is a different variance I need to use.

              \r\n[ ]*.N90-.*00000000$

              supasillyassS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Michael VincentM
                Michael Vincent
                last edited by

                @Adam-Bowsky

                How about:

                \r\n\s+\d{1,4}N90-.*\s+00000000$
                

                The \r\n matches a windows carriage return, line feed. If you’re not using Windows (CR/LF) but rather Unix (LF), just remove the ‘\r’.

                The \s+ means match white space at least once but get as many as possible (you said there is preceding space on each line).

                The \d{1,4} means match a digit at least once, but not more than 4 times - you said “Some of the files have 2, 3, and 4 digits”.

                The N90- is self explanatory

                The .* means match any character (.) or or more times (*).

                The \s+ is spacing again before all the trailing '0’s, which themselves are self-explanatory.

                Finally, the $ is stop at the end of the line.

                Adam BowskyA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • Michael VincentM
                  Michael Vincent
                  last edited by

                  Using PREGGER:

                  PS VinsWorldcom@:~> pregger "/\r\n\s+\d{1,4}N90-.*\s+00000000$/"
                  The regular expression:
                  
                  (?-imsx:\r\n\s+\d{1,4}N90-.*\s+00000000$)
                  
                  matches as follows:
                  
                  NODE                     EXPLANATION
                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                  (?-imsx:                 group, but do not capture (case-sensitive)
                                           (with ^ and $ matching normally) (with . not
                                           matching \n) (matching whitespace and #
                                           normally):
                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                    \r                       '\r' (carriage return)
                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                    \n                       '\n' (newline)
                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                    \s+                      whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") (1 or
                                             more times (matching the most amount
                                             possible))
                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                    \d{1,4}                  digits (0-9) (between 1 and 4 times
                                             (matching the most amount possible))
                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                    N90-                     'N90-'
                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                    .*                       any character except \n (0 or more times
                                             (matching the most amount possible))
                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                    \s+                      whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " ") (1 or
                                             more times (matching the most amount
                                             possible))
                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                    00000000                 '00000000'
                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                    $                        before an optional \n, and the end of the
                                             string
                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                  )                        end of grouping
                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                  
                  PS VinsWorldcom@:~>
                  
                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • supasillyassS
                    supasillyass @Adam Bowsky
                    last edited by

                    @Adam-Bowsky

                    The dot indicated matches a single character:

                    \r\n[ ]*.N90-.*00000000$
                            ^
                    

                    So change it to match a string of digits:

                    \r\n[ ]*[0-9]*N90-.*00000000$
                            ^^^^^^
                    

                    There’s also an edge case not matched where the first line has N90-, so follow up with: ^[ ]*[0-9]*N90-.*00000000\r\n

                    Adam BowskyA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                    • Adam BowskyA
                      Adam Bowsky @Michael Vincent
                      last edited by

                      @Michael-Vincent thank you! I believe this worked correctly. 1 question… “the match a digit at least once”… does this include preceding zeros? For example, if the line had looked like this: 00001N90-SS9035X? If so, would I change \d{1,4} to \d{1,5}?

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Michael VincentM
                        Michael Vincent
                        last edited by

                        @Adam-Bowsky said:

                        For example, if the line had looked like this: 00001N90-SS9035X? If so, would I change \d{1,4} to \d{1,5}?

                        It does not include preceding zeros by default. Zeros (0) are numbers (digits) so they would count towards the 4 maximum ( { …, 4} ). You’re correct in that if you had 4 leading zeros, then \d{1,5} would match it.

                        I like to be precise in my RegEx (as precise as possible) to not catch anything I shouldn’t. I’d rather be cautious than aggressive when doing a bulk replace like this. You could just use \d+ which would match at least 1 and as many digits in a row (similar to the \s+ we’ve been using).

                        Cheers.

                        Adam BowskyA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                        • Adam BowskyA
                          Adam Bowsky @supasillyass
                          last edited by

                          @supasillyass thanks!

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Adam BowskyA
                            Adam Bowsky @Michael Vincent
                            last edited by

                            @Michael-Vincent thanks again!

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • Adam BowskyA
                              Adam Bowsky
                              last edited by

                              Re: Delete lines in multiple text/DAT files that contain specific characters

                              Hello,

                              I have been using this process since you were kind enough to help me, and just notices that I am running into a problem with this expression: \r\n\s+\d{1,4}N90-.*\s+00000000$. in addition to deleting the line that has the N90- with a , it is also deleting the line above it. For example, the line above was deleted in addition to the line that I wanted to delete. This is happening on every file where N90- is present. Do you have any idea why this is happening?

                                    10DTP-1040K           00000000  This should not have been deleted, but was.
                                    10N90-SS7784X         00000000 This was deleted correctly.
                              
                              Adam BowskyA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • Adam BowskyA
                                Adam Bowsky @Adam Bowsky
                                last edited by

                                @Michael-Vincent

                                Hello,

                                I have been using this process since you were kind enough to help me, and just notices that I am running into a problem with this expression: \r\n\s+\d{1,4}N90-.*\s+00000000$. in addition to deleting the line that has the N90- with a , it is also deleting the line above it. For example, the line above was deleted in addition to the line that I wanted to delete. This is happening on every file where N90- is present. Do you have any idea why this is happening?

                                  10DTP-1040K           00000000  This should not have been deleted, but was.
                                  10N90-SS7784X         00000000 This was deleted correctly.
                                
                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • guy038G
                                  guy038
                                  last edited by guy038

                                  Hello, @adam-bowsky, @michael-vincent, @supasillyass and All,

                                  Personally, I would use the following regex S/R, which should work in all the discussed cases !

                                  I simply assume that the N90- string, with this exact case, is preceded with, at least, one digit !

                                  SEARCH (?-si)^\h*\d+N90-.*\R?

                                  REPLACE Leave EMPTY

                                  Of course, the Regular expression search mode is selected and the Wrap around option is ticked

                                  Give a try !

                                  I’ll give you some explanations when everything is right ;-))

                                  Best Regards

                                  guy038

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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