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    How to replace a whole line starting with a given expression

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    • Rachad AntoniusR
      Rachad Antonius
      last edited by

      Hello
      I would like to remove all lines in a NotePad++ text file starting with a given word.
      These lines may vary in the number of caracters. Exemple : I want to remove all lines starting with

      X-Gmail-Labels: (and then, the length of the line as well as its content may vary)
      Such as :
      X-Gmail-Labels: =?UTF-8?Q?Messages_envoy=C3=A9s,Bo=C3=AEte_de_r=C3=A9ception?=

      What to I write in the Search box ?
      Thanks !
      Rachad

      Claudia FrankC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Claudia FrankC
        Claudia Frank @Rachad Antonius
        last edited by

        @Rachad-Antonius

        by using regular expression and

        /s*GIVEN_WORD.*
        

        in find what, keep replace with empty you can replace all lines.

        For details about the regex see here.

        Cheers
        Claudia

        Scott SumnerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Scott SumnerS
          Scott Sumner @Claudia Frank
          last edited by

          @Claudia-Frank

          Ok, Claudia, this time you have really lost me. I don’t understand your solution! :-(

          Here’s mine:

          Find-what zone: (?-s)^X-Gmail-Labels:.*\R
          Replace-with zone: make sure this is EMPTY
          Search-mode: Regular Expression
          Wrap-around checkbox: ticked
          Action: Press Replace-All button

          That is tailored to your example, Rachad. Obviously(?) the general solution is:

          Find-what zone: (?-s)^givenword.*\R
          (all else the same)

          Claudia FrankC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
          • Claudia FrankC
            Claudia Frank @Scott Sumner
            last edited by Claudia Frank

            @Scott-Sumner

            Hi Scott,
            I’m puzzled too, where is the circumflex and why is there a forwardslash instead of a backslash??

            I thought I wrote

            ^\s*GIVEN_WORD.*
            

            Strange.
            I added the \s just in case it is in front of GIVEN_WORD - might be not exactly what OP is asking for.

            Thank you for pointing this out.

            Cheers
            Claudia

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
            • guy038G
              guy038
              last edited by guy038

              Hello @rachad-antonius, @claudia-frank, @Scott-sumner, and All,

              Claudia, don’t forget that the \s regular syntax matches any single character of the range [\t\n\x0B\f\r\x20\x85\xA0\x{2028}\x{2029}]

              So let’s imagine this initial text, below :

              • Which begins with 3 empty lines

              • With 2 other empty lines, after line bbbbbbb

              • And the second to last line contains, ONLY the expression GIVEN_WORD

              
              
              
              GIVEN_WORD aaaaaaaaaaaa
              bbbbbbb
              
              
              GIVEN_WORD ccccccccc
              GIVEN_WORDeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
              GIVEN_WORD fffffff
              gggggggggggggggggg
              hhhhhhhhh
              GIVEN_WORD iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
              GIVEN_WORD
              jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
              

              With your regex, ^\s*GIVEN_WORD.*, this text turns into :

              
              bbbbbbb
              
              gggggggggggggggggg
              hhhhhhhhh
              
              jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
              

              Whereas the Scott’s regex, (?-s)^GIVEN_WORD.*\R gives :

              
              
              
              bbbbbbb
              
              
              gggggggggggggggggg
              hhhhhhhhh
              jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
              

              This later syntax seems more correct as it matches a single line, at a time ;-)) doesn’t it ? Claudia, you may click several times on the couple Find Next | Replace, with the View > Show Symbol > Show All Characters option set !

              BTW, @rachad-antonius, the \R syntax, at the end of the regex, matches the line-break characters of the current line, whatever the kind of file ( Unix, Windows, or Mac ) !


              Additional Notes :

              • In case, @rachad-antonius, that you would like, in addition, to delete entire lines, having some blank characters ( spaces and/or tabulations ), before the GIVEN_WORD, you could use the regex ^\h*GIVEN_WORD(?-s).*\R

              • Secondly , depending if you prefer the GIVEN_WORD to be matched with that exact case, or not, you could choose :

                • The regex ^\h*(?-i)GIVEN_WORD(?-s).*\R for an exact case match

                • The regex ^\h*(?i)GIVEN_WORD(?-s).*\R for a match, independent of the case of GIVEN_WORD

              • Finally, if GIVEN_WORD represents an complete expression, containing special regex characters, I advice you to use the following one : ^\h*(?-i)\QGIVEN_WORD\E(?-s).*\R. Indeed, between the 2 syntaxes \Q and \E, you may insert any character or symbol, without no restriction !!

              Refer to :

              http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_55_0/libs/regex/doc/html/boost_regex/syntax/perl_syntax.html#boost_regex.syntax.perl_syntax.quoting_escape


              For instance, if you want to delete the entire lines, beginning with the string +++ | Test | +++, whatever the case of the word test, and possibly preceded, in the same line, by some blank characters, use the regex, below :

              ^\h*(?i)\Q+++ | Test | +++\E(?-s).*\R

              Remark :

              If you don’t use the quoted form \Q.......\E, the regex must be rewritten as below, which each special regex character escaped with an \ character !

              ^\h*(?i)\+\+\+ \| Test \| \+\+\+(?-s).*\R

              Best Regards,

              guy038

              P. S. :

              Claudia, many Thanks for your Xmas Greetings ! Sorry for not replying, in time :-< I just forgot to consult my e-mail box ;-))

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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