Search Help

Colin Webster

Hi!! I just need some help if anyone can please?

I am searching a massive file for this…

4******h&jones.45k

I am using this to search (^[4].*)(h&jones.45k)

but my search brings up all possible results. eg 4*****h&jones.45k or 4h&jones.45k.

I know there is 8 missing characters so how do I return just the ones with 8 missing characters?

Many thanks

Col

Colin Webster

Sorry I didn’t explain that too well

I am after finding all matches with 8 of any character. So for example…

I get this with (^[4].*)(h&jones.45k)

49l£drh&jones.45k
4kg83&dh&jones.45k
455&h&jones.45k
445675££_h&jones.45k

Gives me 100s for results

Instead I want… all results like so with all lines with 8 characters after 4 ending with h&jones.45k

487hyCS£lh&jones.45k
4_5_ki!lkh&jones.45k
498Ll!-_6h&jones.45k
487PO4jyYh&jones.45k

Thanks

Col

Alan Kilborn

8 characters after 4 ending with h&jones.45k

Try:

Find what box: (?-is)^4.{8}h&jones\.45k
Search mode radiobuttons: select Regular expression

Learn to answer questions of this kind yourself in the future; start reading HERE and also check out the N++ user manual’s searching section HERE.

After posting originally, I noticed that I should have escaped the literal . in the find-what expression – I’ve corrected that in the above.

guy038

May be, it’s worth to prefer this search regex :

SEARCH / MARK : (?-is)^4.{8}h&jones.45k\R

With this syntax, it should be easier to copy or remove these specific lines, if necessary !

Best Regards,

guy038

guy038

@alan-kilborn is right about the escaped dot ( \. ). So, my solution becomes :

SEARCH / MARK : (?-is)^4.{8}h&jones\.45k\R

Cheers,

guy038