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Delete Multiple lines in Multiple files

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  • ?
    A Former User
    last edited by Apr 26, 2017, 1:38 PM

    Hello.

    I’m new to this forum and if this has been answered before then I apologize.

    I’m looking to delete about 25 lines in multiple txt-files, and I’m wondering if this is something Notepad++ can do?

    I’m a newbie when it comes to RegEx, and may need a bit of walkthrough.

    I hope someone can help me.

    Thanks in advance.

    S 1 Reply Last reply Apr 26, 2017, 1:44 PM Reply Quote 0
    • S
      Scott Sumner @A Former User
      last edited by Apr 26, 2017, 1:44 PM

      @Tanja-Corell

      Welcome. Well, you need to be more specific about which 25 lines…what describes them… Only then (and possibly after some back-and-forth about your description of these lines to nail down something that a regex specification can be built from) will anyone be able to help you.

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      • ?
        A Former User
        last edited by Apr 26, 2017, 1:59 PM

        The txt in the lines are not the same in any of the files, but here’s an example of what I wanted to delete.


        Amphibious Rescue

        by Amilyn

        Category: Early Edition
        Genre: Drama, Humor
        Language: English
        Status: Completed
        Published: 2011-04-25
        Updated: 2011-04-25
        Packaged: 2015-01-02 07:22:45
        Rating: K+
        Chapters: 1
        Words: 8,041
        Publisher: www.fanfiction.net
        Story URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6936531/1/
        Author URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/29600/Amilyn
        Summary: The paper wants Gary to save a car wreck victim, stop a gang fight, and prevent a tragedy on a zoo field trip for visually impaired kids. No warnings apply.


        I hope this makes sense.

        S 1 Reply Last reply Apr 26, 2017, 2:08 PM Reply Quote 0
        • S
          Scott Sumner @A Former User
          last edited by Apr 26, 2017, 2:08 PM

          @Tanja-Corell

          There needs to be a discernible pattern to your data that you need to define; we can’t guess because we aren’t in your brain and can’t know what you are getting at.

          So a valid thing for you to say might be:
          The lines I need to delete always start with a title line, followed by an empty line, followed by a line that starts with “by” and a space and a name, followed by a blank line, then a bunch of lines with other data, and lastly a line that starts with “Summary” , which is the last line of the group to delete.

          Something like that would be a starting point for offering up some advice on how to solve your problem.

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          • ?
            A Former User
            last edited by Apr 26, 2017, 2:20 PM

            I did say I was new, and I didn’t know how to express what I wanted done.

            Thank you for the correction.

            The lines I need to delete always start with a title line, followed by an empty line, followed by a line that starts with “by” and a space and a name, followed by a blank line, then a bunch of lines with other data, and lastly a line that starts with “Summary” , which is the last line of the group to delete.

            Can anyone help me?

            C 1 Reply Last reply Apr 26, 2017, 3:59 PM Reply Quote 0
            • C
              Claudia Frank @A Former User
              last edited by Apr 26, 2017, 3:59 PM

              @Tanja-Corell

              still not 100% clear to me.
              Does this mean that, from your example, you have this

              Amphibious Rescue

              by Amilyn

              Category: Early Edition
              Genre: Drama, Humor
              Language: English
              Status: Completed
              Published: 2011-04-25
              Updated: 2011-04-25
              Packaged: 2015-01-02 07:22:45
              Rating: K+
              Chapters: 1
              Words: 8,041
              Publisher: www.fanfiction.net
              Story URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6936531/1/
              Author URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/29600/Amilyn
              Summary: The paper wants Gary to save a car wreck victim, stop a gang fight, and prevent a tragedy on a zoo field trip for visually impaired kids. No warnings apply.

              and want to get that

              Category: Early Edition
              Genre: Drama, Humor
              Language: English
              Status: Completed
              Published: 2011-04-25
              Updated: 2011-04-25
              Packaged: 2015-01-02 07:22:45
              Rating: K+
              Chapters: 1
              Words: 8,041
              Publisher: www.fanfiction.net
              Story URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6936531/1/
              Author URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/29600/Amilyn

              Could it be that this pattern occurs more often in one file like

              Amphibious Rescue

              by Amilyn

              Category: Early Edition
              Genre: Drama, Humor
              Language: English
              Status: Completed
              Published: 2011-04-25
              Updated: 2011-04-25
              Packaged: 2015-01-02 07:22:45
              Rating: K+
              Chapters: 1
              Words: 8,041
              Publisher: www.fanfiction.net
              Story URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6936531/1/
              Author URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/29600/Amilyn
              Summary: The paper wants Gary to save a car wreck victim, stop a gang fight, and prevent a tragedy on a zoo field trip for visually impaired kids. No warnings apply.

              Amphibious Rescue2

              by Amilyn2

              Category: Early Edition
              Genre: Drama, Humor
              Language: English
              Status: Completed
              Published: 2011-04-25
              Updated: 2011-04-25
              Packaged: 2015-01-02 07:22:45
              Rating: K+
              Chapters: 1
              Words: 8,041
              Publisher: www.fanfiction.net
              Story URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6936531/1/
              Author URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/29600/Amilyn
              Summary: The paper wants Gary to save a car wreck victim, stop a gang fight, and prevent a tragedy on a zoo field trip for visually impaired kids. No warnings apply.

              Another title3

              by SomeoneElse

              Category: Early Edition
              Genre: Drama, Humor
              Language: English
              Status: Completed
              Published: 2011-04-25
              Updated: 2011-04-25
              Packaged: 2015-01-02 07:22:45
              Rating: K+
              Chapters: 1
              Words: 8,041
              Publisher: www.fanfiction.net
              Story URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6936531/1/
              Author URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/29600/Amilyn
              Summary: and some different summary etc…

              Cheers
              Claudia

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • ?
                A Former User
                last edited by Apr 26, 2017, 6:24 PM

                I have 20.000+ txt-files in which I would like to delete everything from the first line to the summary line, and keep the rest of the txt.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • S
                  Scott Sumner
                  last edited by Apr 27, 2017, 12:43 PM

                  It appears the OP has undergone an identity crisis…no matter…

                  OP:

                  Firstly, I encourage if not demand you make a complete backup copy of your entire original file set…Whew!, now nothing that follows is my fault! :-)

                  So, this could work, if I have a good understanding of the “spec” on what is needed:

                  Find what: (?s).+?\RSummary:[^\r\n]+\R(.+)
                  Replace with: \1
                  Search mode: Regular expression

                  Very high-level summary of what happens with the find and replace:
                  From the start of file (in a Replace in Files operation) match a string of any characters followed by a line-ending with “Summary:” immediately after; continue matching through (and including) the line-ending of the “Summary:” line. At that point, grab the contents of the remainder of the file and remember it. At replace time, substitute what was remembered (everything after the “Summary:” line) for the contents of the entire file. This effectively deletes the desired lines.

                  For the regex experts out there reading this, I DID try some things with the \A anchor (for start-of-file matching), but I recall reading something from @guy038 on a bug with \A in Notepad++'s regex engine, and my testing bore out that there is a problem with it.

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