How to replace a character without affecting the other character with notepad?

Pedro Contreras

Friends I have this problem, I need to replace the character: without affecting the other character like the previous one (:), for example

ame: 1234: test
journal:gift:5ty
to
ame1234: test
journalgift:5ty

please

Scott Sumner

@Pedro-Contreras

Seems like you need to delete the first, and only the first. : on a line. Is that right? What if a line only has one :…does it still get removed?

Pedro Contreras

I need to eliminate the first one:
They are more than 10000 lines, and they all have the:, as well as the example

Scott Sumner

@Pedro-Contreras

Try this:

Find what zone: ^([^:\r\n]*):
Replace with zone: \1
Wrap around checkbox: as you like it
Search mode: Regular expression
Action: Press Replace / Replace All button

Here’s an explanation of how it works:

THE FIND EXPRESSION:

^([^:\r\n]*):

[Assert position at the beginning of a line (at beginning of the string or after a line break character) (carriage return and line feed, form feed)][1 ] ^
[Match the regex below and capture its match into backreference number 1][2 ] ([^:\r\n]*)
- [Match any single character NOT present in the list below][3 ] [^:\r\n]*
  - [Between zero and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy)][4 ] *
  - [The colon character][5 ] :
  - [The carriage return character][6 ] \r
  - [The line feed character][6 ] \n
[Match the colon character][5 ] :

THE REPLACE EXPRESSION:

\1

[Insert the text that was last matched by capturing group number 1][7 ] \1

Created with RegexBuddy

[1 ]: http://www.regular-expressions.info/anchors.html
[2 ]: http://www.regular-expressions.info/brackets.html
[3 ]: http://www.regular-expressions.info/charclass.html
[4 ]: http://www.regular-expressions.info/repeat.html
[5 ]: http://www.regular-expressions.info/characters.html
[6 ]: http://www.regular-expressions.info/characters.html#special
[7 ]: http://www.regular-expressions.info/replacebackref.html

Pedro Contreras

@Scott-Sumner said:

\1

If you work the code, thank you very much friend, I thank you