In my previous post, I give an example of the modifications needed :

INITIAL  :    sissleib6930    @    stu.howardcollege.edu    :    Not-Engaged
EXPECTED :    sissleib6930    @    stu.howardcollege.edu    :    Not-Engaged    :Email.    stu.howardcollege.edu

Seemingly, we need the part between the @ and the : chars because this part has to be re- written at the end of line, too

However, the part before the @ char does not change at all. So we can represent the goal as below ( note that Space chars are irrelevant )

                                   The OVERALL match = $0
                         /¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\
INITIAL  Text            @    stu.howardcollege.edu    :    Not-Engaged
EXPECTED Text            @    stu.howardcollege.edu    :    Not-Engaged    :Email.    stu.howardcollege.edu
                              \___________________/                        \_____/    \___________________/
                                    Group 1                                String        Repeated Group 1

SEARCH      regex        @  (         .+            )  :       .+

REPLACEMENT regex                            $0                            :Email.             \1

Now, the exact syntax of this regex S/R is rather obvious :

SEARCH (?-s)@(.+):.+

REPLACE $0:Email.\1

And will change the initial text :

ernestobaltar@yahoo.com:Golden-Ball
amaury.tenaille@epfedu.fr:SilverBall
Inspirit@staplesnet.us:Copper_Ball
Matthewsk@mail.montclair.edu:Encourage
sissleib6930@stu.howardcollege.edu:Not-Engaged

into the expected text :

ernestobaltar@yahoo.com:Golden-Ball:Email.yahoo.com
amaury.tenaille@epfedu.fr:SilverBall:Email.epfedu.fr
Inspirit@staplesnet.us:Copper_Ball:Email.staplesnet.us
Matthewsk@mail.montclair.edu:Encourage:Email.mail.montclair.edu
sissleib6930@stu.howardcollege.edu:Not-Engaged:Email.stu.howardcollege.edu

Notes :

• In the search regex :

  • First, the (?-s) ensures that any regex symbol . will match a single standard character, only and not EOL chars

  • Then the part @(.+): searches for the @ character followed with a non-null range of chars till a colon :. Note that this range is stored as group 1 because of the parentheses

  • The final part .+ represents the characters after the colon char of each line

• In the replacement regex :

  • We first insert the overall pattern $0. So, everything between the @ char and the end of current line

  • Then, we write the literal string :Email.

  -Finally, we re- write the contents of Group 1, so the name of each site, thanks to the \1 syntax

Best Regards,

guy038

I was about to give you the full solution to your problem, when I saw the @peterjones’s answer. And I must admit that he’s right about it !

So let me show you how to guess the right solution as your goal is, simply, a line substitution of some parts of current line !

You said that you have, for instance, this last line of text :

sissleib6930@stu.howardcollege.edu:Not-Engaged

and that you want it to be changed as :

sissleib6930@stu.howardcollege.edu:Not-Engaged:Email.stu.howardcollege.edu

OK ! So, let’s try to decompose, both the initial and the expected lines, inserting some space chars for a best identification of the different parts of your text :

INITIAL  :    sissleib6930    @    stu.howardcollege.edu    :    Not-Engaged
EXPECTED :    sissleib6930    @    stu.howardcollege.edu    :    Not-Engaged    :Email.    stu.howardcollege.edu

What do we see ?

• Firstly, the initial line must be rewritten as is

• Secondly, the literal string :Email. must be added at the end of current line

• Thirdly, the site address, located after the @ symbol and before the : symbol must be added, too, after the literal string :Email.

Now, it should be easy enough to you to build up the correct regex S/R to perform such modifications !

You may find some first help, reading this part of the N++ official documentation :

https://npp-user-manual.org/docs/searching/#regular-expressions

I can assure you that my complete solution, already found, respects exactly the scheme described above !

This is not surprising because there can only be one valid interpretation, though there can be several regex valid syntaxes, of course !

Best Regards

guy038

We’ve been through this before. We have shown you plenty of regex that deal with your colon-separated files. Try generalizing one of those approaches (I will give you a hint: start with @guy038’s most recent post in your previous question).

If what you tried doesn’t work, show us what you tried, and explain why you thought it would work. We will then be able to help you learn what you are missing.

This forum is not a place where we do your job (or your homework) for you. We have explained plenty of times what the various portions of our regexes do. We have pointed you to the documentation plenty of times. You have complained that you don’t have the time to read the documentation… but somehow, you have the time to come here with every new situation with these colon-files, and then the time to wait for answers, and then the time to argue with us when we try to get you to make an effort. Honestly, if it’s not important enough to you to read some documentation, why should it be important enough to us to do it for you?

Show some effort, and you will get good answers. If you refuse to show effort, well, then, good luck.