Filling empty lines with previous line

Viktoria Ontapado

Hi All!
I’d like to request a bit of help with the following.

I have a document with words and expressions and random number of empty lines between them.

I’d like to fill all the empty ones with the preceding content. If the number of empty lines is more than one, every single one should repeat the previous “occupied” line.

So from this one:

apple
watermelon
empty line
orange
pear
empty line
empty line
empty line
empty line
cherry and mango
empty line
strawberry
empty line
empty line
nectarine
plum, banana and raspberry
empty line
empty line
empty line
empty line
empty line
empty line
grape
empty line
mango
empty line
blueberry and mandarin
kiwi
empty line
empty line
papaya

I’d like to achieve the following one:

apple
watermelon
watermelon
orange
pear
pear
pear
pear
pear
cherry and mango
cherry and mango
strawberry
strawberry
strawberry
nectarine
plum, banana and raspberry
plum, banana and raspberry
plum, banana and raspberry
plum, banana and raspberry
plum, banana and raspberry
plum, banana and raspberry
plum, banana and raspberry
grape
grape
mango
mango
blueberry and mandarin
kiwi
kiwi
kiwi
papaya

What way can I achieve this?

Thank you and have a nice day,
Viktoria

Alan Kilborn

Do Replace All repeatedly with this regular-expression replacement:

find: (?-s)^(.+?)\R\R
repl: ${1}\r\n${1}\r\n

Tick Wrap around

guy038

Hello, @viktoria-ontapado, @alan-kilborn and All,

This regex S/R should be OK, too :

SEARCH (?-s)(.+\R)\R
REPLACE \1\1
Tick the Wrap around option
Select the Regular expression search mode
Click, repeatedly, on the Replace All or, best, use the Alt + A shortcut

Best Regards,

guy038

Terry R

Hello, @viktoria-ontapado, @alan-kilborn, @guy038

As an exercise to see if another way could be found I came up with this. I haven’t been able to create a 1 step regex, but these 2 different regexes each run only once.

So the method is to move the lines around so the line to be copied is below those empty lines for each “set”. Then using a positive lookahead we capture the “line” to be copied and replace the current “empty” line with that text.

Maybe it might prompt those amongst us (looking at you @guy038) to pull apart my idea to see if it can be made into a 1 step operation.

First regex which changes the order of the lines in each set.
Find What:(^.+\R)(\R+)
Replace With:\2\1

Second regex which fills in the empty lines with the text to be copied.
Find What:(^\R)(?=\R*?(.+\R))
Replace With:\2

So each regex only needs running once using the “Replace All” button.

Oh and contrary to above statement to have wrap around ticked IMO it should NOT be ticked. The cursor should be in the very first position of the file before beginning any of these regex, since the filling of empty lines is crucial on position of cursor when commencing.

Terry

Makwana Prahlad

Hello,@Viktoria-Ontapado

Please follow this step, To Filling empty lines with the previous line

Step 1:- Press Ctrl+H (Replace)
Step 2:- Select Extended from SearchMode
Step 3:- Put \r\n\r\n in Find What
Step 4:- Put \r\n in ReplaceWith
Step 5:- Click on Replace All

I hope this information will be useful for you.
Thank you.

Nick Brown

Alternatively using the python script plugin and the following python should achieve the desired results:

from Npp import *

def replaceEmptyLinesWithPrevious(contents, lineNumber, totalLines):
    if len(contents.strip()) == 0:
        previousLine = editor.getLine(lineNumber-1)
        editor.replaceWholeLine(lineNumber, previousLine)
    return 1
    

editor.forEachLine(replaceEmptyLinesWithPrevious)

Viktoria Ontapado

As usual, I really appreciate the answers, very impressive solutions. I tested the script as well, works like a charm. Thank you so much for the invaluable help.

Have a nice day,
Viktória