Regular search between symbol.

[Victor Fatal]

I have many files with content:

ClientAnimationController
{
skeleton = “Models”
}

SkinMesh
{
skin = “Effects”
}

SoundEvents
{
soundbank = “Effects.wav”
}

I need to delete all content between:
SkinMesh
{
*****
}

[guy038]

Hello, @victor-fatal,

Very easy with regular expressions, indeed !

• To avoid bad surprises, backup, first, all the concerned files or, better, the concerned folder

• Open the Find in Files dialog ( Ctrl + Shift + F )

• In the Find what: zone type SkinMesh\R\{\R\K(?-s).+

• Leave the Replace with zone EMPTY

• Enter the names of all your files, or, probably a filter, in the Filters : zone

• Enter the name of the directory, containing the files to scan for, in the Directory : zone

• Click on the Replace in Files button

• Confirm the Are you sure dialog, after checking

• Et voilà ! It should have changed all lines skin = “…” into pure blank lines

---

Notes :

• The first part SkinMesh\R\{\R searches for the string SkinMesh, followed by End of Line character(s), then followed by an opening curly brace, and followed, again, by End of Line character(s)

• Note that the { special symbol must be escaped, to be considered as a literal

• Now, the part \K just resets the regex search position of the regex engine

• Then, the (?-s) modifier forces the regex engine to consider the dot as matching standard characters, only ( not End of Line characters ! )

• Finally, the part .+ represents all the standard characters of the next line, that is to say the string skin = “…”

Remark : If you prefer to wipe out all lines of this type, just add an \R syntax, at the end of the search regex, in order to get :

SkinMesh\R\{\R\K(?-s).+\R and leave EMPTY, as above, in the replacement zone

Best Regards,

guy038

[Victor Fatal]

It’s just wonderful, thanks for the detailed response. Thank you very much!