Find and select multiple lines to change order

Alan Kilborn

@guy038 said in Find and select multiple lines to change order:

Always this damn problem of texts that do not end with a last line break !

I gave up dealing with that problem long ago when I started to use the editorconfig plugin. With it you can specify that files should always end with an line-ending sequence.

Too bad that isn’t a native feature of Notepad++.

guy038

Hello @victor-fansler, @terry-r, @alan-kilborn and All,

You said, in your chat message :

The “Camera” is a placeholder and can be any text, but will end with a Date and Time

So I suppose that all these lines always end with the three uppercase letters PST

If this assumption is right, here are new versions of the regexes ( The first and second one ). Note also that I improved these regexes :

Now, you don’t even need to separate any section with blank line(s) ;-))

So starting with your INPUT text, where I added some empty lines :

Video Return
Camera-1 02/14/2022 08:31AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name
Video Return
Camera-1 02/14/2022 02:27AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name
Connection Lost to Camera
Camera-1 02/14/2022 12:25AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name

Video Return
Camera-1 02/14/2022 12:23AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name
Video Return
Camera-1 02/13/2022 09:31AM PST
Camera-4 02/13/2022 09:31AM PST
Camera-2 02/13/2022 09:31AM PST
Camera-3 02/13/2022 09:31AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name



Video Return
Camera-1 02/13/2022 04:57AM PST
Camera-4 02/13/2022 04:57AM PST
Camera-3 02/13/2022 04:57AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name
Connection Lost to Camera
Camera-2 02/13/2022 01:43AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name
Video Return
Camera-1 02/13/2022 01:42AM PST
Camera-4 02/13/2022 01:42AM PST
Camera-2 02/13/2022 01:42AM PST
Camera-3 02/13/2022 01:42AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name


Connection Lost to Camera
Camera-1 02/12/2022 07:18PM PST
Camera-4 02/12/2022 07:18PM PST
Camera-2 02/12/2022 07:18PM PST
Camera-3 02/12/2022 07:18PM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name

First, use the following regex S/R in order to place the line Video Return OR Connection Lost to Camera, after each line Account :

SEARCH (?-s)^(.+\R)((?:.+\R)+?Account: .+\R)\R*

REPLACE \2\1

We get this text :

Camera-1 02/14/2022 08:31AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name
Video Return
Camera-1 02/14/2022 02:27AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name
Video Return
Camera-1 02/14/2022 12:25AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name
Connection Lost to Camera
Camera-1 02/14/2022 12:23AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name
Video Return
Camera-1 02/13/2022 09:31AM PST
Camera-4 02/13/2022 09:31AM PST
Camera-2 02/13/2022 09:31AM PST
Camera-3 02/13/2022 09:31AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name
Video Return
Camera-1 02/13/2022 04:57AM PST
Camera-4 02/13/2022 04:57AM PST
Camera-3 02/13/2022 04:57AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name
Video Return
Camera-2 02/13/2022 01:43AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name
Connection Lost to Camera
Camera-1 02/13/2022 01:42AM PST
Camera-4 02/13/2022 01:42AM PST
Camera-2 02/13/2022 01:42AM PST
Camera-3 02/13/2022 01:42AM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name
Video Return
Camera-1 02/12/2022 07:18PM PST
Camera-4 02/12/2022 07:18PM PST
Camera-2 02/12/2022 07:18PM PST
Camera-3 02/12/2022 07:18PM PST
Account: Customer Name - Server Name
Connection Lost to Camera

Now, using this second regex S/R :

SEARCH (?-is)^.+PST(?=\R(?:.+PST\R)*?(Account: .+)\R(.+)\R)|^(.+\R){2}

REPLACE ?1\1 - $0 - \2

We get the OUTPUT text :

Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-1 02/14/2022 08:31AM PST - Video Return
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-1 02/14/2022 02:27AM PST - Video Return
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-1 02/14/2022 12:25AM PST - Connection Lost to Camera
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-1 02/14/2022 12:23AM PST - Video Return
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-1 02/13/2022 09:31AM PST - Video Return
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-4 02/13/2022 09:31AM PST - Video Return
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-2 02/13/2022 09:31AM PST - Video Return
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-3 02/13/2022 09:31AM PST - Video Return
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-1 02/13/2022 04:57AM PST - Video Return
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-4 02/13/2022 04:57AM PST - Video Return
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-3 02/13/2022 04:57AM PST - Video Return
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-2 02/13/2022 01:43AM PST - Connection Lost to Camera
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-1 02/13/2022 01:42AM PST - Video Return
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-4 02/13/2022 01:42AM PST - Video Return
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-2 02/13/2022 01:42AM PST - Video Return
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-3 02/13/2022 01:42AM PST - Video Return
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-1 02/12/2022 07:18PM PST - Connection Lost to Camera
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-4 02/12/2022 07:18PM PST - Connection Lost to Camera
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-2 02/12/2022 07:18PM PST - Connection Lost to Camera
Account: Customer Name - Server Name - Camera-3 02/12/2022 07:18PM PST - Connection Lost to Camera

I hope that it is your expected text !?

See you later !

Best Regards,

guy038

Alan Kilborn

@guy038

Is there a special reason for the recent revisit to something asked 5 months ago? Just asking…in case I am missing some sort of newly discovered technique…

guy038

Hi, @alan-kilborn,

Well, it’s just that we cannot place more than 1,000 characters in a chat message. So I preferred to answer in our forum !

But, indeed, I was asked to create a new post or to continue with that one !

I have just re-indicated to @victor-fansler, the title of this article

BR

guy038

Alan Kilborn

@guy038 said in Find and select multiple lines to change order:

But, indeed, I was asked to create a new post or to continue with that one !

Ah, OK, makes sense! I wasn’t sure your previous use of “chat” really meant that or just conversation above in this thread.

Chat is useful if something really gets specific to an OP’s need and really can’t benefit anyone else. Otherwise it is good to see the conversation in a real post.

Michael Vincent

@alan-kilborn said in Find and select multiple lines to change order:

I gave up dealing with that problem long ago when I started to use the editorconfig plugin. With it you can specify that files should always end with an line-ending sequence.

I would have thought you’d have a PythonScript for that! :-)

Cheers.

Alan Kilborn

@michael-vincent said in Find and select multiple lines to change order:

I would have thought you’d have a PythonScript for that

It would be an easy script, but I don’t tend to re-invent the wheel unless I’m going to make the wheel better. And editorconfig works just fine in this regard, so…just keep rollin’.

Alan Kilborn

@michael-vincent said in Find and select multiple lines to change order:

…PythonScript for that…

Well… I looked into my folder of “retired” scripts and I found that I used to use the SCOTT SCRIPT for doing it before I discovered the editorconfig plugin.

DarthData

@guy038 Thanks for this and sorry for any confusion. Unfortunately, the lines will not always end with PST. There are different time zones. Primarily PST and MST, but could be MDT as well.

Lycan Thrope

@darthdata ,

You really have to stop moving the goal posts. :) Poor @guy038 must have a real life, even if he does love doing this stuff, I suspect he’d like to fix it once and move on. :)

Lee

guy038

Hi, @darthdata and All,

In this case, change the second regex S/R into this one :

SEARCH (?-is)^.+(?:PST|MST|MDT)(?=\R(?:.+(?:PST|MST|MDT)\R)*?(Account: .+)\R(.+))|^(.+\R){2}

REPLACE ?1\1 - $0 - \2

BR

guy038