Search and extract results between two strings in multiple files

Amit Pandey

Hello Everyone,

I am trying to search and extract results between two strings in multiple files.

for example
i need to search string “Assign” between ‘PROCEDURE INIT-RECORD’ and ‘END PROCEDURE’, something like below

PROCEDURE INIT-RECORD

DEFINE variable a;
DEFINE variable b;
DEFINE variable c;

Assign a = 4;

Assign b = 6;

c = a + b;
END PROCEDURE

the search results should retrieve
Assign a = 4, and
Assign b = 6.

and similar Assign statements across multiple files within the PROCEDURE INIT-RECORD.

i tried NPP search using
(?s)(?<=PROCEDURE INIT-RECORD)(.+?)(?<=END PROCEDURE)

the above regex search string selects the target procedure but i cannot copy the text from all the results.

Any help/pointers/ideas here will be appreciated.

Alan Kilborn

@Amit-Pandey said in Search and extract results between two strings in multiple files:

Your regex seems ok, as a first step.
But use the Mark All function followed by Copy Marked Text and paste into a new N++ tab.
That way, in the new tab you have Assign data that only occurs between the specified delimiters; all others will not be in the new tab.
Then you can do a similar regex Mark operation for Assign.
I think you know where to go from there.

search and extract results between two strings in multiple files.

You will need to do the files one at a time, manually.

guy038

Hello, @amit-pandey, @alan-kilborn and All,

@amit-pandey, I suppose your need this regex technique

If we adapt this generic regex to your specific problem, we end with that functional regex :

MARK (?-i:PROCEDURE INIT-RECORD|(?!\A)\G)(?s-i:(?!END PROCEDURE).)*?\K(?-si:Assign.+)

So :

Open your file in Notepad++
Move the cursor to its very beginning
Open the Mark dialog ( Ctrl+ M )
Untick ALL box options
Check the 3 options Bookmark line, Purge for each serch and Wrap around
Select the Regular expression search mode
Click on the MArk All button
Click on the Copy Marked Text button
Open a new tab ( Ctrl + N )
Paste The Mark contents ( Ctrl + V )

Here you are !

Best Regards

guy038

Amit Pandey

Hello @guy038 , @Alan-Kilborn

Thanks for your time in looking into this.

@Alan-Kilborn , the file volume is huge hence working this out for one file at a time is a challenge.

@guy038 , the regex search string did the trick, i used it in ‘Find in Files’ option.
The search results are giving me the first instance of the target string within the target procedure.
The results are far much better than what i was getting earlier with my search efforts.

Although I still cannot get all the search results but i got a good perspective on my search results

guy038

Hi, @amit-pandey, @alan-kilborn and All,

@amit-pandey, you said :

Although I still cannot get all the search results but i got a good perspective on my search results

This means that your initial example is totally insufficient and that we need some other blocks PROCEDURE INIT-RECORD ....... END PROCEDURE that allow us to build the appropriate regex which will match all the expected results !

So, just add a longer exemple, which describe most of the cases which may occur, using the </> function, in your answer !

BR

guy038

Amit Pandey

Hello @guy038 ,

My bad, i misinterpreted your reply and went into a different direction.
(also had to upgrade my NPP (upgraded to v8.4.9) to reflect ‘Copy Marked text’ option".

I have now achieved what is required.

Here are the steps which i followed

Search for Regex String ‘PROCEDURE INIT-RECORD|ASSIGN|END PROCEDURE’ across the files
Copied the search result in a new window
Applied regex search string provided by you in the earlier reply’ and followed the provided steps
All the target keywords within the target procedure were marked
Used ‘Copy Marked Text’ option and got my results

Thanks a lot for your help.