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

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  • M
    Michael Vincent
    last edited by Aug 22, 2019, 4:11 PM

    @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.

    A 1 Reply Last reply Aug 22, 2019, 5:54 PM Reply Quote 2
    • M
      Michael Vincent
      last edited by Aug 22, 2019, 4:15 PM

      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
      • S
        supasillyass @Adam Bowsky
        last edited by Aug 22, 2019, 4:21 PM

        @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

        A 1 Reply Last reply Aug 22, 2019, 6:15 PM Reply Quote 2
        • A
          Adam Bowsky @Michael Vincent
          last edited by Aug 22, 2019, 5:54 PM

          @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
          • M
            Michael Vincent
            last edited by Aug 22, 2019, 6:13 PM

            @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.

            A 1 Reply Last reply Aug 22, 2019, 7:20 PM Reply Quote 2
            • A
              Adam Bowsky @supasillyass
              last edited by Aug 22, 2019, 6:15 PM

              @supasillyass thanks!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • A
                Adam Bowsky @Michael Vincent
                last edited by Aug 22, 2019, 7:20 PM

                @Michael-Vincent thanks again!

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • A
                  Adam Bowsky
                  last edited by Jan 21, 2020, 5:07 PM

                  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.
                  
                  A 1 Reply Last reply Jan 21, 2020, 5:25 PM Reply Quote 0
                  • A
                    Adam Bowsky @Adam Bowsky
                    last edited by Jan 21, 2020, 5:25 PM

                    @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
                    • G
                      guy038
                      last edited by guy038 Jan 23, 2020, 2:36 AM Jan 21, 2020, 9:45 PM

                      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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