Notepad++ How to delete sections of text starting with a line containing a certain phrase

[Banjo G]

I’m trying to edit a few calibre files that have tags attached, but the tag line is not always formatted the same.

Eg.

div class=“pcalibre1 pcalibre2 pcalibre tags-list”

div class=“pcalibre1 pcalibre2 tags-list pcalibre”.

I want to delete everything including and between the lines containing tags-list and entry-speaker.

Is there an easy way to do this with regex?

[Alan Kilborn]

@Banjo-G said in Notepad++ How to delete sections of text starting with a line containing a certain phrase:

delete everything including and between the lines containing tags-list and entry-speaker

Your example doesn’t show any entry-speaker so I suggest you have a look HERE.

[Banjo G]

@Alan-Kilborn Sorry, those were examples of the lines not being formatted the same.
An better example would be

<div class=“pcalibre2 pcalibre1 pcalibre tags-list”>
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
<h4 class=“pcalibre2 pcalibre1 pcalibre entry-speaker”>

With all lines wanting to be deleted. The problem is that the tags-list and entry-speaker lines are often scrambled.

Eg.
<div class=“pcalibre2 pcalibre tags-list pcalibre1”>
<div class=“pcalibre1 pcalibre2 tags-list pcalibre”>
<div class=“pcalibre1 pcalibre2 pcalibre tags-list”>
<div class=“pcalibre2 pcalibre1 pcalibre tags-list”>

[guy038]

Hello, @banjo-g, @alan-kilborn and All,

I think you could test this regex S/R, below :

SEARCH (?-s)^.+?tags-list(?s).+?entry-speaker.+?$\R

REPLACE Leave EMPTY

against this sample text :

blabla
bhahblah
blabla
<div class=“pcalibre2 pcalibre1 pcalibre tags-list”>
…
…
…
…
<h4 class=“pcalibre2 entry-speaker pcalibre1 pcalibre”>
blabla
bhahblah
blabla
<div class=“pcalibre1 tags-list pcalibre2 pcalibre”>
…
…
…
…
<h4 class=“pcalibre2 pcalibre1 pcalibre entry-speaker”>
blabla
bhahblah
blabla
<div class=“pcalibre2 pcalibre tags-list pcalibre1”>
…
…
…
…
<h4 class=“entry-speaker pcalibre2 pcalibre1 pcalibre”>
blabla
bhahblah
blabla
rt
<div class=“tags-list pcalibre1 pcalibre2 pcalibre”>
…
…
…
…
<h4 class=“pcalibre2 pcalibre1 entry-speaker pcalibre”>
blabla
bhahblah
blabla

should be OK ;-))

Best Regards,

guy038

[Banjo G]

@guy038 That works wonders, thanks!

[guy038]

Hi, @banjo-g, @alan-kilborn and All,

A generic and general form of the regex, described in my previous post, could be :

SEARCH (?-is)^.*?Expression A(?s).*?Expression B.*?$\R

Basically, this regex :

• Searches for two lines :

  • A line A, containing Expression A, at any location of line A

  • A line B, containing Expression B, at any location of line B

• Selects all range of characters, generally multi-lines, from the beginning of line A till the end of line B, with its EOL characters

• The lines A and B may be identical. However, in that case, Expression B must be located after Expression A, in current line !

Notes :

• First, the in-line modifier (?-is)

  • Carries a non-insensitive search ( so sensitive to case )

  • Forces the regex engine to interpret the regex dot symbol . as matching a single standard character ( not EOL ones )

• Then, the part ^.*?Expression A matches, from beginnning of line, the shortest range, possibly null, of standard characters, followed by Expression A, with that exact case

• Now, the part (?s).*?Expression B looks for the shortest range, possibly null, of characters, including EOL, followed by Expression B, with that exact case

• Finally, the part .*?$\R searches for the shortest range, possibly null, of characters till an end of line, followed with its line-break

Cheers,

guy038