How to replace strings involving search of multiple lines?

[Budana P]

Hello community,

Newbie here on regex…

I have a pgn text file with multiple Events such as this (one example):

[Event "Santander"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1945.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Aljechin"]
[Black "Ricondo"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "1TA"]

I require the Annotator be added to the Event information such as this:

[Event "Santander 1TA"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1945.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Aljechin"]
[Black "Ricondo"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "1TA"]

I have successfully created find:
Event "(.+)"\\]\r\n(.*)\r\n(.*)\r\n(.*)\r\n(.*)\r\n(.*)\r\n(.*)\r\n\\[Annotator "(.+)"

… And Replace (all) with:
Event "$1 $8"]\r\n$2\r\n$3\r\n$4\r\n$5\r\n$6\r\n$7\r\n[Annotator "$8"

But, it looks too long/cumbersome. Is there a more compact or shortest way to rewrite the find and replace that achieves the exact thing?

Many thanks in advance,

—

moderator added code markdown around text; please don’t forget to use the </> button to mark example text as “code” and `backticks` around regular expressions so that characters don’t get changed by the forum

[PeterJones]

@Budana-P said in How to replace strings involving search of multiple lines?:

I have successfully created … But, it looks too long/cumbersome.

Good job on figuring out what you did. We’re not really focused on optimizations, because that’s more regex-specific rather than being related directly to Notepad++.
However, there are some of the regex gurus who might take an interest. And I will at least point you in the direct that I would research if I were doing it for myself.

Is there a more compact or shortest way to rewrite the find and replace that achieves the exact thing?

Look into the multiplying operators like {ℕ} … A matched group like ((?:\r\n.*){6}) would put six lines into the same single group, which would make the replacement easier as well (since you’d only need one $ℕ for all those lines). (I used a unnamed/unnumbered group (?:...) inside the main capture group to avoid wasting a group# on the subgroup

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Useful References

• Please Read Before Posting
• Template for Search/Replace Questions
• Formatting Forum Posts
• Notepad++ Online User Manual: Searching/Regex
• FAQ: Where to find other regular expressions (regex) documentation

[guy038]

Hello, @budana-p, @peterjones and All,

Here is one possible solution :

Starting with that INPUT text :

[Event "Santander"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1945.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Aljechin"]
[Black "Ricondo"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "1TA"]

[Event "Santander"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1945.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Aljechin"]
[Black "Ricondo"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "2TA"]

[Event "Santander"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1945.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Aljechin"]
[Black "Ricondo"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "3TA"]

With the following regex S/R :

• SEARCH (?-is)^(\\[Event.+)(?="\\]\R(?:.+\R)+?\\[Annotator "(.+)")

• REPLACE \1 \2

You should get this expected OUTPUT text :

[Event "Santander 1TA"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1945.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Aljechin"]
[Black "Ricondo"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "1TA"]

[Event "Santander 2TA"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1945.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Aljechin"]
[Black "Ricondo"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "2TA"]

[Event "Santander 3TA"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1945.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Aljechin"]
[Black "Ricondo"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "3TA"]

---

NOTES :

• First, the search is non-insensitive (?-i) and the dot matches standard chars only ( not the EOL chars ) (?-s)

• Then, this regex searches, from beginning of line, for the string [Event followed with some characters, before a trailing double-quote, which are stored as group 1

• But that search matches ONLY IF it is followed with the look-ahead (?="\\]\R(?:.+\R)+?\\[Annotator "(.+)"). That is to say :

  • A double-quote, followed with a closing square bracket and the line-break ( \R is a shorthand for \r\n or \n or \r )

  • A non-capturing group, repeated, containing the shorter number of lines ( due to the lazy quantifier +? ), till it reaches a first [Annotator line

  • This \\[Annotator "(.+)" line , beginning with the string [Annotator " is followed with some characters, stored as group 2 and the trailing double-quote

  • In replacement, we simply rewrite the beginning of the Event line ( group 1), followed with a space char and the Annotator value ( group 2 )

Best Regards,

guy038

[Budana P]

Hi @guy038 , thank you for the compact code approach, but I got an “Invalid Regular Expression” error such at this screenshot

I am using notepad++ v8.5.8 . Do I need to activate any plugins to enable syntax as suggested above?

(?-is)^([Event.+)(?="]\R(?:.+\R)+?[Annotator "(.+)")

Also, thank you @PeterJones for the reference suggestions. I need lots of practice especially for lookbacks and lookaheads and also multiplying operators.

Awesome.

[Budana P]

@guy038 found it…

Just a minor oversight that the forum postings between backticks could not display the backslash before each open and close square brackets.

Beginning to see the powers of regex.

Thank you all .

Budana

[Coises]

@Budana-P
@guy038 said in How to replace strings involving search of multiple lines?:

(?-is)^([Event.+)(?="]\R(?:.+\R)+?[Annotator "(.+)")

I think you meant:

(?-is)^(\\[Event.+)(?="]\R(?:.+\R)+?\\[Annotator "(.+)")

did you not? The forum software seems to be having trouble with backslashes before open square brackets.

[guy038]

Hello, @budana-p, @peterjones, @coises and All,

Yes, you’re right, @coises always this same annoying problem !

So the correct regex S/R is definitively :

- SEARCH     (?-is)^(\\[Event.+)(?="\\]\R(?:.+\R)+?\\[Annotator "(.+)")

- REPLACE    \1 \2

BR

guy038

P.S. :

I’ll try to edit my previous post in order that my explanations on the search regex are coherent.

It’s important to note that when you edit a post, it always rewrite all the post with the wrong syntax, even if you changed something without any relation to the square brackets :-((

Thus, for this kind of post, you must do all your modifications in one go and never modify it anymore ! Else, you have to redo the edit process, from the very beginning

[guy038]

Hi, all,

I’m just seeing that, even in a code block, the regex syntax is still erroneous. So, in all cases, you must add a two anti-slashes string, right before any opening or closing square bracket for a correct syntax, once you click the blue SUBMIT button !

BR

guy038

Finally, as suggested by @peterjones, in this FAQ :

https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/21925/faq-formatting-forum-posts

• When matching literal square brackets, always use the \x5B and \x5D syntaxes, instead !

So, my search regex becomes :

SEARCH (?-is)^(\x5BEvent.+)(?="\x5D\R(?:.+\R)+?\x5BAnnotator "(.+)")

[PeterJones]

@Coises said in How to replace strings involving search of multiple lines?:

The forum software seems to be having trouble with backslashes before open square brackets.

As @guy038 pointed out, that’s in our FAQ.

However, this discussion was the straw that broke my proverbial camel’s back: I’ve reported it as a bug to NodeBB in their bug-reports forum. We’ll see if they can ever figure out how to not mess up backslash-square-bracket.

[Barış Uşaklı]

This should be fixed in the latest update, thanks for reporting @PeterJones