Open files that start with (or contain) a pattern

tamuanand

Hi

How can I configure Notepad++ to open files that start with a specific pattern?

I have files that are all named starting with “Process_A”

Process_A.e1234
Process_A.o1234
Process_A.e4567

and so on

Is there a way I can configure the “File Association” field to:

[1] open files that start with a specific pattern (files starting with Process_A as outlined above)

[2] open files that end with “.e\d+” (using perl like syntax here - i.e. files that end with dot followed by the letter e followed by a number")

Thanks in advance,
Anand

Scott Sumner

@tamuanand

Hmmm…not really a Notepad++ question per se, so I won’t get too deep into it…but you could do something like this at a CMD prompt (or batch file):

For [1]:

for %f in (Process_A*) do echo %f

For [2]:

for %f in (*.e????) do echo %f

where of course you replace echo with a command-line to invoke Notepad++…

This hopefully will get you started on a solution…the solution for #2 isn’t real “tight”… :-)

PeterJones

@tamuanand ,

If you’re going to invoke perl for me… :-)

>ls -latr
total 132
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Peter.Jones 0      0 2018-10-31 08:08 Process_A.e1234
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Peter.Jones 0      0 2018-10-31 08:08 Process_A.o1234
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Peter.Jones 0      0 2018-10-31 08:08 Process_A.e4567
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Peter.Jones 0      0 2018-10-31 08:09 pre.e1
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Peter.Jones 0      0 2018-10-31 08:09 pre.e12
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Peter.Jones 0      0 2018-10-31 08:09 pre.e123
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Peter.Jones 0      0 2018-10-31 08:09 pre.e1234
drw-rw-rw-   2 Peter.Jones 0   4096 2018-10-31 08:09 .
drw-rw-rw-  27 Peter.Jones 0 131072 2018-10-31 08:23 ..

>perl -e "for(glob('Process_A*')){ system(qq(echo path/to/notepad++.exe $_)) }"
path/to/notepad++.exe Process_A.e1234
path/to/notepad++.exe Process_A.e4567
path/to/notepad++.exe Process_A.o1234

>perl -e "for(glob('*.*')){ next unless /\.e\d+/; system(qq(echo path/to/notepad++.exe $_)) }"
path/to/notepad++.exe pre.e1
path/to/notepad++.exe pre.e12
path/to/notepad++.exe pre.e123
path/to/notepad++.exe pre.e1234
path/to/notepad++.exe Process_A.e1234
path/to/notepad++.exe Process_A.e4567

All you have to do is remove the echo, and fix path/to/notepad++.exe, and those perl one-liners will do what you want. :-)

tamuanand

Thanks Peter and Scott for the responses.

In my case, I am “not” specifically looking to open all files at once.

I just want to be able to configure Npp File association to be able to open files that start with a specific pattern (or contain a pattern).

PeterJones

Windows file associations don’t work on patterns, they work on fixed extensions.

Personally, I have a notepad++ association on the (windows-special) * HKCR entry (though not the default assocation, of course), so I can right click and “Open with notepad++” no matter the extension.

update: added “windows-special” above. In the registry’s HKCR, that * entry is not really doing a file globbing; it’s the windows registry notation for “all file types”.

Donisha Jones

I REALLY CANT ANSWER THAT ONE BUT I CAN TELL U THIS

Scott Sumner

@PeterJones said:

… I can…“Open with notepad++” no matter the extension.

Amen–it’s what I do as well. I’ve never really understood file extension association with something like Notepad++, so I don’t understand what all the usual hullabaloo is about (all the questions on this Community concerning it). Sure, I understand file associations for something like .xlsx where it is ALWAYS going to be Excel that opens those files…but Notepad++ has no such equivalent. .txt comes closest I guess, but still…