Create aligned columns

Giuliana Swdn

Hi all,

I would like to create columns out of the list of numbers I have.
The goal is to achieve the same column style of the first row of numbers (ROW8) that you can see in the picture (see link: http://imgur.com/a/afR3M ).
The following rows of numbers have the same length (same amount of digits as in ROW 8) but they have no spaces in between and I want them to get aligned.
Here there is a scheme of the [spaces] and the number of digits I would like to obtain.
[10] 10 [12] 8 [11] 9 [11] 9 [11] 9 [11] 9 [11] 9 [11] 9 [11] 9 [11] 9.

Hopefully someone can help me with this!
Cheers,
Giuliana

guy038

Hello, Giuliana,

Not very difficult with regular expressions !

From your picture, Giuliana, each line of your file ( 90 characters long ) must be separated, according to the template : “10spaces - 10 digits - 12 spaces - 8 digits - ( 11 spaces 9 digits ) * 8”, to obtain a line of 200 characters long

So :

Open your file and move back to its very beginning, if necessary
Open the Replace dialog
Type, in the two *Find what: and Replace with: fields, the following regex expressions, WITHOUT the double quotes ( " )

SEARCH "(?-s)^(.{10})(.{8})(.{9})(.{9})(.{9})(.{9})(.{9})(.{9})(.{9})(.{9})"

REPLACE "          $1            $2           $3           $4           $5           $6           $7           $8           $9           $10"

Beware :
- There are 10 space characters, between the " character and the back-reference $1
- There are 12 space characters, between the the two back-references $1 and $2
- Then, always 11 space characters, between two back-references, till the end of the line
Check the Regular expression search mode ( IMPORTANT )
Finally, click on the Replace All button

So, starting, for instance, from the original line, below :

135012160427072098258328479258328482258328481258328480258328483258328486258328485258328484

you’ll get the formatted text, below :

          1350121604            27072098           258328479           258328482           258328481           258328480           258328483           258328486           258328485           258328484

NOTES :

At beginning of the search regex, the syntax (?-s) ensures you that the following dot characters refer to a single standard character, only
The syntax .{n}, where n is a digit, represents n consecutive standard characters, from current caret position,
As this syntax is enclosed within two round brackets, these n characters are stored, successively, as group 1, 2, 3…
And are re-written, in replacement, accordingly to the appropriate back-reference $x, simply preceded by the correct amount of space characters

Cheers,

guy038

Giuliana Swdn

Thank you sooo much for your reply!!!
Very clear and exhaustive!

Have a great weekend and thanks again :)
Cheers,
Giuliana