How to mark lines with under "x" characters after : in a line.

guy038

Hello, @hoang-ngoc, @peterjones and All,

The following single search regex could be used and, with an empty replace field, would delete any line with a valid user-name :

SEARCH (?i-s)(?=^[a-z0-9])(?=.*[a-z0-9]:)(?=.*[a-z].*:)^[a-z0-9_.-]{6,15}:.*\R?

REPLACE Leave EMPTY

Notes :

The (?i-s) forces an insensitive search process and the regex dot . standing for a single standard character
Then the main part is ^[a-z0-9_.-]{6,15}:.*\R? which searches for 6 to 15 chars, before a colon which can be, either, a standard letter or digit, an underscore, a period or a dash, followed by the remainder of current line and a possible line_break
This part will be valid ONLY IF, in addition, these three lookaheads are TRUE, at beginning of current line :
- A letter or digit begins the user-name ( part (?=^[a-z0-9]) )
- A letter or digit ends the user-name ( part (?=.*[a-z0-9]:) )
- The user-name contains, at least, ONE letter ( part (?=.*[a-z].*:) )

So, given this INPUT text :

short:••••••••                      #  < 6 chars
ThisIs2good:••••••••                #  OK
Looong_user-name:••••••••           #  > 15 chars
us@er'NA=ME:••••••••                #  NON-VALID chars
ok-chr:••••••••                     #  OK  (  7 chars and ALL chars ALLOWED )
ABCD-FGHI_12.34:••••••••            #  OK  ( 15 chars and ALL chars ALLOWED )
1234-6789:••••••••                  #  NO letter
.User-Name:••••••••                 #  NON-VALID char at START
USER.NAME_:••••••••                 #  NON-VALID char at END
1ok_again2:••••••••                 #  OK

After the replacment, it would remain :the following OUTPUT text :

short:••••••••                      #  < 6 chars
Looong_user-name:••••••••           #  > 15 chars
us@er'NA=ME:••••••••                #  NON-VALID chars
1234-6789:••••••••                  #  NO letter
.User-Name:••••••••                 #  NON-VALID char at START
USER.NAME_:••••••••                 #  NON-VALID char at END

Best regards

guy038