greeting to all. closed.

You’ll probably not read this (or see Guy’s excellent reply), but for future readers of this thread, I have to make a couple more statements

I wasn’t sure that guy038 was answering me,

Because it took more than 12 hours!? For future readers: some problems take more than 30seconds to solve, and on non-live forums, it can take a day or two.

and since nobody was helping me here,

We were all helping you. And both Guy and I answered almost simultaneously today explaining exactly why replace all worked but replace (once) didn’t. If that’s not helping you, I don’t know what is.

Beyond that, we were helping you, explaining that in help forums, asking politely, not demanding immediate response, and showing an effort to learn is a much better way to get help.

I asked my question and not only as you say it has not been closed, but indeed they replied immediately

Well, the userbase of of Stack Exchange is probably a thousandfold more than this Community, so there are a lot more to draw from.

I think some degree of discussion is quite fine and appropriate. People start out with some data, a need to do something to it, and a tool (our beloved N++). What else are they to do but ask (on a N++ forum) “how can I do this with N++?” And that’s totally fine.

And the “weirdness” of the N++ engine? Also a very good topic here.

But, yea, slogging thru a lot of posts of typical regex handholding gets old, and I agree with you that it is better on a regex dedicated site. Hopefully you are patrolling those as well and helping the rest of the world with regex! :-)

@alan-kilborn, you said :

And all this in a forum that isn’t about regular expressions, but rather Notepad++!

You’ve got a point, there !! @Scott-sumner felt the same way, in this post :

https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/35723

Have a look, at the same time, to my reply and question :

https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/35742

Again, I wonder if most of my answers are relevant, in this forum ? I mean, all this should be dealt with in a forum dedicated to regular expressions However, note that I specifically speak about N++ functionalities of our regex engine !

Ah, ah : that could be a government slogan : Too many regular expressions can seriously damage your health !

Cheers

guy038

That’s it, I got it !. In fact, the new regexes, below, are simply derived from the one given in a previous post of this present discussion :

https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/50425

So :

SEARCH (?-s)^((?!.+@).+\R?)+ ( to delete any bunch of consecutive lines, not containing an e-mail address

SEARCH (?-s)^((?!.+@).*\R?)+ ( to delete the empty lines, as well ! )

REPLACE Leave EMPTY

Notes :

• These two regexes match any non-null range of lines, which does not contain, each, the @ symbol

• Of course, if your caret is located somewhere between two e-mail addresses, it will catch, only, from current location till the last line before a line containing an e-mail address

• With these syntaxes, you may use the step-by-step replacement, with successive clicks on the Replace button

• It does not mind the lack of a last line-break, at the very end of of the current file

Best Regards,

guy038

moreover, @ PeterJones, leaving aside unnecessary controversy, I would just like to tell you that instead on Stackoverflow, since I wasn’t sure that guy038 was answering me, and since nobody was helping me here, I asked my question and not only as you say it has not been closed, but indeed they replied immediately, within a few minutes, solving my problem skillfully … in a few minutes …
so rest assured that I will no longer bother you here. luckily there are other forums, and other users (as I do when I can) who are happy to satisfy a request for help.
with this, however, a greeting to all. closed.

randomly typed

Heheh, hadn’t seen the “randomly typed” part before, but, not being the one that has ever needed to read your boilerplate thoroughly, I guess I’m not surprised. :-)

BTW, I can’t see any of the “takers” truly ever reading your BP either, but… :-)

@PeterJones said in delete line between bookmark:

we expect you to show some effort. Try some regexes, see if you can make them work for what you want to do. If you have trouble with one, show the regex you tried, show why you tried it, and explain what is wrong with the results it gives

This is good and proper advice, but I think what the “takers” will start doing (to satisfy it) is grabbing the last freebie regex given to them, throw a couple of crap characters in it, and then post back, going “Wah wah it doesn’t work!”, without putting any real thought (or, forbid, learning) into it.

That’s why here I said “show why you tried it”, and in my fuller boilerplate, I say, “why you thought that regex would work (to prove it wasn’t just something randomly typed)”

we expect you to show some effort. Try some regexes, see if you can make them work for what you want to do. If you have trouble with one, show the regex you tried, show why you tried it, and explain what is wrong with the results it gives

This is good and proper advice, but I think what the “takers” will start doing (to satisfy it) is grabbing the last freebie regex given to them, throw a couple of crap characters in it, and then post back, going “Wah wah it doesn’t work!”, without putting any real thought (or, forbid, learning) into it.

The “takers” seem to quickly establish a pattern in their behavior, as exemplified above, and in many other chains.

And all this in a forum that isn’t about regular expressions, but rather Notepad++!

I’m very sorry to have come to this, but someone’s behavior is really heavy …

Your behavior is really greedy. You have asked many questions, demanded quick replies, requested specific attention, and never posted one helpful answer to anyone else’s questions.

it doesn’t seem appropriate to study a code that i don’t need.

It doesn’t seem appropriate for us to do your work for you. Since you have proven at least four times in the last month that you do need the tool (regex), claiming you don’t need it is deceiving yourself, at best.

You don’t have to become an expert at regex right away… and we don’t expect you to. However, we expect you to show some effort. Try some regexes, see if you can make them work for what you want to do. If you have trouble with one, show the regex you tried, show why you tried it, and explain what is wrong with the results it gives. With that much effort on your part, we will help you understand what you are doing wrong, so that we can help you learn. But if you just say “make this change for me – and make it right now! on my schedule!”, then you will not be able to learn.

if you don’t want to help me for anything else, nobody forces you.

You are not asking for help. you are asking us to write regexes for you, showing no effort to try to do them yourself. Throwing fish down your mouth isn’t helping you; teaching you how to fish is helping you; and asking that you at least learn how to cast the lure yourself, even if you’ve chosen the wrong lure for your specific fish, is a reasonable expectation.

I am registered in numerous forums, and where i can i give my contribution.

But you’ve never contributed anything but questions, and have shown a demanding, unwilling to try to learn attitude here. That’s all we have to go on. We haven’t seen you be willing to learn; we haven’t seen you try to help others. We have just seen your demands.

and anyway to conclude, there are other forums, including stackoverflow, where others help without controversy. from now I will turn there.

hahaha! Stack Overflow is about the most unhelpful forum I’ve ever seen. If you deign to ask a question similar to what’s been asked before, your question gets closed without any input from you.

I only hoped, since guy038 had shown me a way, that he would help me to reach a conclusion.

This is not personal one-on-one time. When Guy has opportunity, I am sure he will come back and answer your slight tweak. But demanding a certain person reply, and starting to ask “why haven’t you answered” after only 12 hours delay, is not polite forum behavior.

my post was addressed to him, who without controversy has kindly helped me to solve my problem.

But he has repeatedly asked you to show some effort, and you ignore that.

I repeat, i believe that if one person can help others, he or she is better, otherwise it is better to refrain from controversy. regards.

We are helping you. We are explaining to you the best way to get help: be polite, don’t be demanding, show that you are willing to try things and to learn.

Back to your question:

but i don’t understand why if i click (after the text block after mail has been selected) Replace with: empty don’t delete simply this block… i have to exit the find and delete it manually with the DEL key.
it would be very nice to remove the block with the Replace with key… it’s not possible that??

It is possible to replace all. However, inside the dialog, single replaces don’t work with the \K, as Guy already explained to you. If you want to replace one at a time, you do the first search from the dialog, then exit out of the dialog box. From then on, DEL and F3 will allow you delete and then do the next one-at-a-time search.

edit: I see that Guy posted the same thing while I was typing.

I already explained to you, in this previous post, that if the \K syntax is present in the regex, this means that step by step replacement, by clicking the Replace button, is not functional !

https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/50469

So, you have two possibilities, only :

A) Use a global replacement :

• Move your caret to a line containing an e-mail address if you want to run the global replacement from current location till the very end of your file. If you want to process all the file, your present location does not matter

• Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

• SEARCH (?-s).*\R\K(?s:.+?)(?=^.+@|\z)

• REPLACE Leave EMPTY

• Tick the Wrap around option, in order that the global replacement acts on the totality of your file

• Or untick the Wrap around option for a global replacement from current location till the very end of your file

• Select the Regular expression search mode

• Click, exclusively, on the Replace All button

B) Use the search feature and a manual suppression :

• Whatever your current location, open the Search dialog ( Ctrl + F )

• SEARCH (?-s).*\R\K(?s:.+?)(?=^.+@|\z)

• Tick the Wrap around option, in order to navigate anywhere, throughout in your current file

• Select the Regular expression search mode

• Click once on the Find Next button, in order to memorize this regex

• Close the Find dialog with the ESC key

• Now, hit the F3 key to get the bunch of lines following the next e-mail address

• If this selection is not wanted, just press the Delete key for suppression, else press, again, the F3 key for next search and so on…

Note that pressing the Delete key is a one-step operation, just like a single click on the Replace button, anyway ;-))

Best Regards

guy038

P.S :

Of course, the best would be to find a new regex S/R which does not need the \K feature. But to identify all lines between two e-mail addresses, I necessarily need to anchor to a first e-mail address, which must not be part of the overall regex match to prevent from deleting ! I’m still searching an other solution ;-))

dear sir… if i knew how to do it, I wouldn’t be here to waste time and ask others for advice, don’t you think?
think before writing, your speech is not welcome.
please avoid writing in my posts, your post is not required.
THANK YOU

Wow, that’s some serious gratitude; remember, I even wrote you a script earlier.

I wasn’t trying to be offensive to you, I was just trying to tell you that what you are trying to do isn’t really tolerated here.

does not exist here in the forum the possibility to send a PM to a user?

No, there is no PM capability.

if i knew how to do it, I wouldn’t be here to waste time and ask others for advice, don’t you think?

Guy has pointed you to the regex FAQ in your very first thread here. And again in your fourth thread here. Then, in your fifth thread, he again reminded you to follow Alan’s advice and learn the basics of regular expressions.

You need to show more effort, rather than demanding that we do your homework for you (at least, I hope it’s homework; if we’re doing the job you are being paid to do for you, that’s even worse), on your time schedule.

your speech is not welcome.
please avoid writing in my posts, your post is not required.

I am sorry. You don’t get to decide who replies to your posts. Alan’s advice is sound advice: you need to put in the effort to start learning this.

In less than a month, you have done 6 different topics, four of which are regex based; as Guy pointed out, some of those have had very similar requirements. You have seen dozens of different regex suggestions from Guy and others on the forum. It is time for you to start learning what the bits of the regexes do, and try them yourself. If you get stuck, you can show us what you tried, and explain why you thought it should work, and we might be able to explain to you why it didn’t work for you, and point you in the right direction.

Please read the regex FAQ that has been linked for you. If that takes you to too many different locations, then please just focus on the official Notepad++ regex documentation.

Some more of my standard advice for people asking regex questions follows below:
-----

Please Read And Understand This

FYI: I often add this to my response in regex threads, unless I am sure the original poster has seen it before. Here is some helpful information for finding out more about regular expressions, :

[…]

If you have further search-and-replace (“matching”, “marking”, “bookmarking”, regular expression, “regex”) needs, study the official Notepad++ searching using regular-expressions docs, as well as this forum’s FAQ and the documentation it points to. Before asking a new regex question, understand that for future requests, many of us will expect you to show what data you have (exactly), what data you want (exactly), what regex you already tried (to show that you’re showing effort), why you thought that regex would work (to prove it wasn’t just something randomly typed), and what data you’re getting with an explanation of why that result is wrong. When you show that effort, you’ll see us bend over backward to get things working for you. If you need help formatting, see the paragraph above.

Please note that for all regex and related queries, it is best if you are explicit about what needs to match, and what shouldn’t match, and have multiple examples of both in your example dataset. Often, what shouldn’t match helps define the regular expression as much or more than what should match.

Here is the way I usually break down trying to figure out a regex (whether it’s for myself or for helping someone in the forum):

1. Compare what portions of each line I want to match is identical to every other one (“constants”), and what parts do I want to allow to be different in each line (“variables”) but still be part of the match.

2. Look at both the variables and constants, and see what portions of each I’ll want to keep or move around, vs which parts get thrown away completely. Each sub-component that I want to keep will be put in a regex group. Anything that gets completely thrown away doesn’t need to be in a group, though sometimes I put it in a numbered (___) or unnumbered (?:___) group anyway, if I have a good reason for it. Anything that needs to be split apart, I break into multiple groups, instead of having it as one group.

3. For each group, I do a mental “how would I describe to my son how to correctly match these characters?” – which should hopefully give me a simple, foolproof algorithm of characters that must match or must not match; then I ask, “how would I translate those instructions into regex sequences?” If I don’t know the answer to the second, I read documentation, or ask a specific question.

4. try it, debug, iterate.

Time to sit down and do some LEARNING and stop doing so much ASKING ?

does not exist here in the forum the possibility to send a PM to a user? I do not think so…

only little curiosity: at the first part of your reply, about this code (?-s).*\R\K(?s:.+?)(?=^.+@|\z) work fine for my purposes, but i don’t understand why if i click (after the text block after mail has been selected) Replace with: empty don’t delete simply this block… i have to exit the find and delete it manually with the DEL key.
it would be very nice to remove the block with the Replace with key… it’s not possible that??

Sorry, I did not even notice this post, which was rather short ;-)) Well, I suppose that the regex does not work because the last line Kaplan USMLE Step 1 ..... is not followed with an e-mail address but is just the very end of your file !

In order that this specific case will be taken in account, too, here is a other search regex :

• Move to any line containing an e-mail address

• Open the Search dialog ( Ctrl + F )

• SEARCH (?-s).*\R\K(?s:.+?)(?=^.+@|\z)

• Tick the Wrap around option

• Select the Regular expression search mode

• Click on the Find Next button

• Hit the ESC key to close the Find dialog

• Now, hitting, repeatedly, on the F3 key, it will select all text, after this e-mail address till the next e-mail address excluded and so on… OR till the very end of current file !

• Of course, you may manually delete some of these blocks, with the Delete key, if necessary

• For a global suppression, leave the replacement zone empty and click on the Replace All button

Moreover, if you want to move from one e-mail address to the next or the previous one, here is an simple method :

• Open the Mark dialog ( Search > Mark... ) option

• SEARCH @

• Tick the 3 options Bookmark line, Purge for each search and Wrap around

• Click on the Mark All button

=> Now, you can easily navigate betweens all these email addresses, using the F2 and/or Shift + F2 shortcuts

Best Regards,

guy038

i want check all my single block one by one before delete all lines.

But as @guy038 said, that expression won’t work in one-at-a-time mode. Continuing to try is an exercise in futility.

If you are uncertain whether the regex will meet all your needs, and you want to be able to compare the “before” and “after” states of your file, I recommend opening the original file blah.txt, File > Save copy as, give it a name like blah_new.txt, then open blah_new.txt and move to other view – so that the two panes of Notepad++ are blah.txt on the left and blah_new.txt on the right, then run Guy’s regex on the blah_new.txt, then use the Compare plugin (which you can install from the Plugins Admin) to find and easily navigate through the differences between the files, and make sure everything is the way you want it. If they are all right, great; if most are right and just a couple aren’t quite right, then manually fix those last few; if there are many wrong, then run Undo, and try to update the regex to better do what you want. Once you are happy with blah_new.txt, you can delete the original blah.txt (or rename to blah_old.txt, then rename blah_new.txt to blah.txt.

(Or, you can start by copying blah.txt to blah_old.txt, and have blah_old.txt on the left and blah.txt on the right, doing all your edits to blah.txt, and eliminating the extra renames at the end of the procedure.)

earlnathanieluhftr@gmail.com:natchel7634
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