How to delete rows / data based on the value in the header

Leszek Bednarski

Hello Dear Community!
This task is way beyond my skills, so I was hoping for some help.
I’d like to delete all the data (yellow) that position (orange) is defined in the “header” (also orange).
I’m attaching the example:

What is the problem? I’d like to perform that for multiple files, this value (STOP.ft) is different in each file (once it is decimal (from 0 to 4 decimal places), once it is not decimal), however, the structure of the file is always the same, so the first occurrence of this value is always in 12th row and second is always somewhere in the first column (it is representing depth, so it is always incremental).
I have no idea how to bite that. This is the third day I’m trying to figure this out (google, finding info here, understanding regex etc.) and I just surrender.
I would appreciate any help!
Regards
LB

guy038

Hello, @leszek-bednarski and All,

You don’t say anything about the number of lines to be deleted. So, I assume that you want to delete any line, after the line containing the STOP.ft number, till the end of current scanned file !

Here is the road map :

Open one your files in Notepad++
Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )
SEARCH (?-si)STOP\.ft\h+(\d+(.\d+)?)(?s).+?\1.+?\R\K.+
REPLACE Leave EMPTY
Tick the Wrap around option
Select the Regular expression search mode
Click, either :
- On the Find Next button to see the selection that will later be deleted
- On the Replace All button to execute the suppression of all lines, after the line containing the STOP.ft value

Remark : Due to the \K syntax :

Do not use the Replace button
Do not use the Replace All button right after the Find Next button, too !

If it work as expected, then :

Do a backup of all the files to be modified ;-))
Open the Find in Files dialog ( Ctrl + Shift + F )
SEARCH (?-si)STOP\.ft\h+(\d+(.\d+)?)(?s).+?\1.+?\R\K.+
REPLACE Leave EMPTY
Type in the file filters and the directory zones
Select the Regular expression search mode
Click on the Replace in Files button

Voila !

Best Regards

guy038

Leszek Bednarski

It works just great!
Thank you very, very, very much!
I was so frustrated, it’s unbelievable.
Definitely I have to spend much more time on learning this, it’s absolutely worth it.
Thank you again.

Best Regards
LB

guy038

Hi, @leszek-bednarski,

I realize that I made a mistake in my previous search regex ! The correct version is :

SEARCH (?-si)STOP\.ft\h+(\d+(\.\d+)?)(?s).+?\1.+?\R\K.+
^
I added a baskslash \ before the . , as we need a literal dot, only, in the decimal number !

Now, some explanations about this search regex, which, I admit, is very complicated !

First the (?-si) in-line modifiers :
- Ensures that the regex dot symbol represents a single standard character and not a line-break character (?-s)
- Carries the search in a non-insensitive way (?-i)
Then, the pattern STOP\.ft searches for the literal string STOP.ft. Note that the special regex symbol . must be escaped to be considered as a literal
Now, the part \h+(\d+(.\d+)?) looks for some horizontal blank characters ( mainly Tab or Space ) \h+, before a number \d+, possibly followed with a decimal part (\.\d+)?. Note that the ? quantifier means {0,1}
As the entire number ( integer or decimal) is embedded in parentheses, it is stored as group 1
Then, the (?s) in-line modifier means that, from now on, a dot pattern may match any character, even EOL ones
And the .+?\1 syntax matches the smallest range of any character .+? till the next group 1 number, so \1
Now, the .+?\R pattern matches the smallest range of any character .+? till EOL characters \R ( So all remaining characters of the line after the 6540.5 number )
Finally, with the \K.+ :
- Due to the \K syntax forces the regex engine to forget anything that has been matched so far
- This time, the .+, with a greedy quantifier matches the greatest range of characters till… the end of current file. This final range is, indeed, the range of characters to be deleted, during the replacement phase !

For a quick overview of regular expressions, begin here :

https://www.regular-expressions.info/quickstart.html

On the official N++ documentation, refer to :

https://npp-user-manual.org/docs/searching/#regular-expressions

You’ll find additional information here

Good luck with your learning of regular expressions ;-))

Best Regards,

guy038

Leszek Bednarski

Hello @guy038,

Thank you very much! Not only for the help but also the very detailed, valuable explanations and references.
At this point in my learning curve, it so complicated that it is just blowing my mind :)

Best Regards
LB