Regex assistance in Notepad++ replacing

DanailKazakov

When you replace stuff in notepad++ with regex, can you somehow copy over to the replace part of the text? For example in the following list:

abcd
123
123
123
123
cdsa
234
234
234
234

I’d like to achieve this result:

abcd,123,123,123,123
cdsa,234,234,234,234

I can select only the “\r\n” before the numbers with something like: \r\n\d+, question is, is there a way to copy over those numbers I catch with the regex to the “replace with” section.

Or maybe use some kind of regex that looks what follows the \r\n, not quite sure how to write that though.

cipher-1024

You can use a backreference in your find/replace parameters. In the find box, put parenthesis around what you want to save, and then put a “\1” in the replace box to represent the set of characters found in the parenthesis set.

Find: \r\n(\d+?)
Replace with: ,\1

I’m sure someone will be able to flesh this answer out and give a better explanation, but this should get you going.

guy038

Hello, @danailkazakov, @cipher-1024 and All,

The cipher-1024’s regex S/R works fine, but I think we can even simplify it ! I propose the following S/R :

SEARCH : \R(?=\d)

REPLACE : ,

The part \R searches for any kind of EOL ( Windows, Unix or MAC form )
But the matching will be true, ONLY IF the EOL character(s) is(are) followed by any digit, due to positive look-ahead construction (?=\d)
In replacement, the EOL character(s), matching that condition, are simply changed by a comma

Best Regards

guy038

DanailKazakov

Thanks, that worked great.