Find Begin/End setting

Javier Rivas

Ok, so I would like to know, if notepad++ can use a find start, find end

So I have a txt files with 50,000 rows, and on each row I have 4 letter codes

I would like to know, and how if possible to select between 2 sets of codes

Keep in mind, holding shift, and scrolling down is not an option, it’s way to long

So in my text files I have
Cod1
Xid2
Xid3
Xid4
Xid5
Cod2

I’m looking for anything that can find both Cod1 and Cod2, highlight everything between so that I can copy or cut that out to another notepad

Ekopalypse

@Javier-Rivas

If this is your real data then you can do a regular expression search (?<=Cod1).+(?=Cod2)

Alan Kilborn

@Javier-Rivas said in Find Begin/End setting:

Keep in mind, holding shift, and scrolling down is not an option, it’s way to long

Check out the Edit menu’s Begin/End select feature. Invoke it once to set a “beginning” position (you get no visual indication that you’ve done this). Sometime later, when you are somewhere vastly different from you starting point, invoke that same command again. This looks up your previously-set beginning position and creates selected text between there and your current position.

guy038

Hello, @javier-Rivas, @ekopalypse and @alan-kilborn and All,

I think that a more accurate regex would be :

MARK (?s-i)^Cod1\R\K.+?(?=^Cod2\R)

Because :

The (?-i) ensures that search of the limits Cod1 and Cod2 are done with case respect
The lazy quantifier +? is needed if several sections Cod1.......Cod2 exist in a same file
The start of line assertion ^ and the EOL characters \R ensure, for instance, that the line Cod2 will not be matched, either, in lines XXXCod2, Cod2XXX or XXXCod2XXX
The \R syntax, after Cod1, prevents from marking the line Cod1, too

Best Regards,

guy038

Alan Kilborn

@Javier-Rivas

so that I can copy … that out to another notepad

If you highlight the text using either @Ekopalypse or @guy038 methods, you’ll want to use the Copy Marked Text button after.

… or cut …

There is no Cut Marked Text capability – maybe there should be?

carypt

This post is deleted!

Javier Rivas

@guy038 do I need to download a plugin. Because my Mark screen does not look like the one in the screen shot

Alan Kilborn

@Javier-Rivas

You just need N++ version 7.9.1 or greater.

Javier Rivas

@Alan-Kilborn great, but the mark didn’t work, the data I used is an example, but to test the regex, I made a txt file and added Cod1 and many data between, and add Cod2. I pressed on all and found nothing. Marked nothing

Javier Rivas

@Javier-Rivas OK the first regex worked, now to test on my real txt file

Alan Kilborn

@Javier-Rivas said in Find Begin/End setting:

@Javier-Rivas OK the first regex worked, now to test on my real txt file

Are you talking to yourself? :-)
Convincing yourself that it really does work?? :-)

Javier Rivas

@Ekopalypse OK your code works, question, could it also highly the Cod 1 and Cod2, I know I said between, but I thought it would find the Cod1 and Cod2 and include it as well

Alan Kilborn

@Javier-Rivas

could it also highly the Cod 1 and Cod2, I know I said between, but I thought it would find the Cod1 and Cod2 and include it

find: Cod1.+?Cod2

Javier Rivas

@Alan-Kilborn Perfect

Alan Kilborn

@Javier-Rivas

Learn what it does, for yourself for the future:

match Cod1 exactly
.+? match any single character (the dot means “any single”), one or more times (the + means 1+ times), but as few times as needed (the ? specifies that)
match Cod2 exactly

All 3 of these things must exist for you to have an overall match.

Javier Rivas

@Alan-Kilborn OK, so I have improved the code search to my use so here is my original search
(?= "caup).+(?= "cues) < — notices the spacing and I removed the <

first to find is “caup”, and it starts with 2 spaces in front of it
last to find is “cues”, and it needs to stop 2 spaces before the “cues”

—“caup”: < ---- it highlights the spaces and the code
-{
-adad
-adasd
-asdad
-}
], < ------- it stops right here
—“cues”: < ----- it ignores the spaces and the code

so now it’s perfect to my standards

Javier Rivas

@Alan-Kilborn Yes, I call it motivation…lmao
Yea, I wanted to add a comment and I clicked on reply to myself…hahahaha

Javier Rivas

@Alan-Kilborn there should be a cut mark and and replace mark that would be awesome

Alan Kilborn

@Javier-Rivas said in Find Begin/End setting:

there should be a cut mark and and replace mark that would be awesome

That would be nice I suppose, but in practice it is not so bad without it.

I’d like to see two separate commands: Begin Select and End Select. That way it would be easier to abort a begin-point by setting a new one (if you realize you’ve made a mistake in setting the origin), and it could also be a reminder in the menu that you haven’t yet set the begin point (Begin Select would be enabled and End Select would be disabled).

BUT…it is definitely OK the way it currently works. And a downside of two commands is that using it from a shortcut would require two shortcuts to be allocated.

Speaking of shortcuts, one thing that is lacking is tying this handy functionality to a shortcut by default. I tie mine to Ctrl+b.

guy038

Hi, @javier-rivas, @ekopalypse and @alan-kilborn and All,

@javier-rivas, taking in account your additional information, my regex becomes :

MARK (?s-i)^\x20\x20"caup":.+?(?=^\x20\x20"cues":)

This regex :

Matches the literal string "caup":, preceded with two space characters ( because of \x20\x20 ) beginning a line, ( because of ^ ), with this exact case ( because of the (?-i) modifier )
Followed with the smallest ( because of ? ) non-null ( because of + ) range of any character ( because of (?s) modifier )…
But ONLY IF followed with the literal string "cues":, preceded with two space characters ( because of \x20\x20 ) beginning a line, ( because of ^ ), with this exact case ( because of the (?-i) modifier ).

Note that the (?=......) syntax is a look-ahead structure, in other words a condition, which must be true in order the present match, so far, to be valid but which is never part of the overall match

Thus, in the text below :

  "caup":
-{
-adad
-adasd
-asdad
-}
],
  "cues":

It would mark and bookmark all the lines but the last one !

Cheers,

guy038