Copying contents between a specific string and a character

Viktoria Ontapado · Apr 4, 2018, 12:03 PM

Hi All!
I’d like to request a bit of help with the following.
I have a text-file (converted from an e-book) with a structure like this:

9/Maywood

Description of the band, stories and anecdotes about them, etc.

Albums:
1983 - Het beste van Maywood
1987 - Beside You
1990 - Achter De Horizon
1991 - 6 Of The Thirties

10/Talking Heads

Description of the band, stories and anecdotes about them, etc.

Albums:
Fear of Music (1979)
Remain in Light (1980)

11/Sly and the Family Stone

Description of the band, stories and anecdotes about them, etc.

Albums:
1968: Life
1969: Stand!
1971: There’s a Riot Goin’ On

12/Delaney & Bonnie

Description of the band, stories and anecdotes about them, etc.

Albums:
To Bonnie from Delaney - Atco, 1970
Motel Shot - Atco, 1971
Country Life - Atco, 1972
D&B Together - Columbia, 1972

13/Mother’s Finest

Description of the band, stories and anecdotes about them, etc.

Albums:
Iron Age (1981), Atlantic

14/INXS

Description of the band, stories and anecdotes about them, etc.

Albums:
Shabooh Shoobah (1982)
The Swing (1984)
Listen Like Thieves (1985)

and so on…containing approx. 800 bands.

I need a file containing only the albums ("Albums:’ line included) uninterruptedly in the following format:

Albums:
1983 - Het beste van Maywood
1987 - Beside You
1990 - Achter De Horizon
1991 - 6 Of The Thirties
Albums:
Fear of Music (1979)
Remain in Light (1980)
Albums:
1968: Life
1969: Stand!
1971: There’s a Riot Goin’ On
Albums:
To Bonnie from Delaney - Atco, 1970
Motel Shot - Atco, 1971
Country Life - Atco, 1972
D&B Together - Columbia, 1972
Albums:
Iron Age (1981), Atlantic
Albums:
Shabooh Shoobah (1982)
The Swing (1984)
Listen Like Thieves (1985)
.
.
.

What way can I achieve this?
So the line “Albums:” is constant in the original file and every page starts with page number/band so slash is steadily presented as well.

I guess somehow we can copy the texts between these two and go from there?

Thank you so much and have a nice day,
Viktoria

Scott Sumner · Apr 4, 2018, 12:17 PM

@Viktoria-Ontapado

Using the technique from @guy038 in this thread ; specifically:

SEARCH : (?s).*?(Your Regex)|.*

and substituting

?:^(Albums:\R.*?\R)\R into it for Your Regex

I was able to arrive at your desired result.

So, in summary:

Find what zone: (?s).*?(?:^(Albums:\R.*?\R)\R)|.*
Replace with zone: \1
Search mode: Regular expression
Action: Replace or Replace All
Note: This is a destructive replacement, not a copy, so if you need the original data, make a copy of it first and then perform this operation on the copy.

BTW, very nice sample data and discussion about what you wanted!

guy038 · Apr 4, 2018, 1:39 PM

Hello, @viktoria-ontapado, and All,

Again, easy task with the help of regular expressions ;-))

From your example, seemingly, the areas of text to delete must :

Begins after two consecutive line breaks ( CR LF CR LF ), so the regex \R\R
Ends right before the string Albums:, beginning a line, so the look-ahead (?=\RAlbums)
In between, we have to select the shortest range of any character(s), between these boundaries, even split on several lines, so the regex (?s).*?

So :

Possibly, add two lines breaks, at the very beginning of your list
Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

SEARCH \R\R(?s).*?(?=\RAlbums:)

REPLACE Leave EMPTY

Select the Regular expression search mode
Set the Wrap around option
Click, once on the Replace All button OR several times on the Replace button

Et voilà !

So, given your list, below :



9/Maywood

Description of the band, stories and anecdotes about them, etc.

Albums:
1983 - Het beste van Maywood
1987 - Beside You
1990 - Achter De Horizon
1991 - 6 Of The Thirties

10/Talking Heads

Description of the band, stories and anecdotes about them, etc.

Albums:
Fear of Music (1979)
Remain in Light (1980)

11/Sly and the Family Stone

Description of the band, stories and anecdotes about them, etc.

Albums:
1968: Life
1969: Stand!
1971: There’s a Riot Goin’ On

12/Delaney & Bonnie

Description of the band, stories and anecdotes about them, etc.

Albums:
To Bonnie from Delaney - Atco, 1970
Motel Shot - Atco, 1971
Country Life - Atco, 1972
D&B Together - Columbia, 1972

13/Mother’s Finest

Description of the band, stories and anecdotes about them, etc.

Albums:
Iron Age (1981), Atlantic

14/INXS

Description of the band, stories and anecdotes about them, etc.

Albums:
Shabooh Shoobah (1982)
The Swing (1984)
Listen Like Thieves (1985)

You should get the expected text :


Albums:
1983 - Het beste van Maywood
1987 - Beside You
1990 - Achter De Horizon
1991 - 6 Of The Thirties
Albums:
Fear of Music (1979)
Remain in Light (1980)
Albums:
1968: Life
1969: Stand!
1971: There’s a Riot Goin’ On
Albums:
To Bonnie from Delaney - Atco, 1970
Motel Shot - Atco, 1971
Country Life - Atco, 1972
D&B Together - Columbia, 1972
Albums:
Iron Age (1981), Atlantic
Albums:
Shabooh Shoobah (1982)
The Swing (1984)
Listen Like Thieves (1985)

Best Regards,

guy038

P.S. :

Viktoria, I’ve just realized that Scott already gave you a solution ! Anyway, I do agree with the last sentence of his reply, too !

Viktoria Ontapado · Apr 4, 2018, 9:54 PM

As usual, I really appreciate the answers, thank you so much to both of you for the solutions, explanations.
The link to the other thread is invaluable as well to me, cheers for that.