RegEx problems

There may be some regex that would allow finding one line, followed by one or more lines; join with a space between the first two, and join without space on any additional lines. But I don’t know what it would be, and our resident regex magician is on holiday this month. But maybe one of the other gurus has some ideas.

Thomas 2020

@PeterJones
I tried ((.*)\R){6} instead (.*)\R(.*)\R(.*)\R(.*)\R(.*)\R(.*)\R
but nothing works.

Terry R

@Thomas-2020 said in RegEx problems:

And when there are more than 5?

Actually there is a regex which will work regardless of how many numbers appear on the following lines in 1 pass.
Using the Replace function we have:
Find What:(\w+$)|(\R(\d+))
Replace With:(?1\1\x20)(?2\3)

So by using “alternation” we either have a word line or a number line. Each is dealt with in a different manner. the word line is re-written with a following space (\x20) and the number line has the preceding line feed/carriage return removed.

There is a proviso though. As this just lumps the numbers together, once you get to 10, how do you identify each of the “separate” numbers in the group. See my example below.

and now we have:

ABC 12345
ABC 1234567891011
ABC 123
ABC 123456789101112

Not a pretty number sequence anymore!

Terry

Pan Jan

Thanks, it works great.
I mainly learn from examples.
the written explanation after translation is usually “bla” “bla” “bla”
I have a request to show me a specific example,
when is it necessary to use this (?1)
So far, everything works without this pattern.
e.g
(?1\1)(?2\3) -> \1\3

PeterJones

@Pan-Jan said in RegEx problems:

when is it necessary to use this (?1)

That is the “conditional replacement” notation, described at https://npp-user-manual.org/docs/searching/#substitution-conditionals

Basically, @Terry-R’s replacement regex says

(?1\1\x20) = if group1 (the \w+$ subpattern) matched, then include the contents of group1 followed by a space in the replacement
(?2\3) = if group2 (the newline followed by one or more digits) matched, then include the contents of group3 (just the digits from inside group2) in the replacement

Your replacement \1\3 will strip out the newlines, but it will not put a space after the abc and before the 123. If that’s okay with you (even though it violates the original), then your simpler regex will work. But @Terry-R’s regex actually matches the behavior you claimed you wanted.

Pan Jan

Alan Kilborn

Posting screenshots without text describing them isn’t going to get you very far.

I think we need to “draw the line” and put a stop to Community members using this forum as a means to “learn regular expressions”.

It isn’t what this site is for.

Sure, asking questions about the “peculiarities” of the N++ regex engine is certainly welcome here, as are general questions of “how to transform data” by noobs that may never even heard of the regular expression concept are also welcome.

But to blatantly use this site as a continual Q-and-A, back-and-forth discussion of common regex concepts is, well, annoying. There are far better places for that type of discussion.

Pan Jan

This post is deleted!

Pan Jan

Your replacement \1\3 will strip out the newlines, but it will not put a space after the abc and before the 123.
I showed there is a space between ABC and 123451012.

Sure, asking questions about the “peculiarities” of the N++ regex engine is certainly welcome here
I think we need to “draw the line” and put a stop to Community members using this forum as a means to “learn regular expressions”.
No comment

guy038

Hello, @pan-jan, @alan-kilborn, @peterjones and All,

Two years ago, about, I said :

By answering, for the most part, to questions, related to regular expressions, ( for years ! ), am I distorting the true purpose of this forum, which should remain, I agree, focused on the features, improvements and bugs of Notepad++ ?

Refer to :

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/topic/16509/regex-select-all-from-row-except/16

So, I totally agree with Alan’s assertion ! There are plenty of sites, devoted to regex’s learning :-)) So, @pan-jan, just have a look to this FAQ :

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/topic/15765/faq-desk-where-to-find-regex-documentation/1

To my mind, one needs 2 weeks, about, to get the basics of regular expressions and, let’s say, between 1 to 3 months to fully understand all the subtleties of this pseudo-language ;-))

Cheers,

guy038

Pan Jan

I wrote above that reading texts in a foreign language in such matters does not make sense.
I know Polish and German.

For me, what matters is a specific answer.
Then I will analyze and verify it.
If it’s okay, I’ll try to remember it.

For me, the lack of a specific answer means that my version is correct.
Simple logic.

it works:
Replace With:(?1\1\x20)(?2\3)

correct:
Replace With:\1\3

Cheers, Thomas 2020.

Chers translated into Polish means the same as: “Your health”
This is what people say when they toast with a glass of vodka in their hands.

Unfortunately, that’s how translators work.
Maybe in 20 years it will be better.

Ekopalypse

@Pan-Jan

Ok, überzeuge mich das ich es nicht mit einem Troll zu tun habe.
Was ist die Frage, was hast Du gemacht, was war das Resultat und
was hättest Du erwartet?

Übrigens, cheers bedeutet im englischen auch Prost,
wird aber auch als Grußwort benutzt.

Ok, convince me I’m not dealing with a troll.
What is the question, what did you do, what was the result and
what did you expect?

By the way, cheers in English means Prost,
but is also used as a greeting word.

PeterJones

@Ekopalypse ,

I don’t know that you needed to bother in this one; he seems to think he has a working expression, from what I can tell.

Pan Jan

This post is deleted!

Pan Jan

@PeterJones
Replace With:(?1\1\x20)(?2\3)

You wrote it (?1 and (?2?. In general, I asked for an example where without this (?1` formula will not work.

I counted most on @guy038.
Instead, he sends me elsewhere for a reply.

It cannot write that this (?1 or (?2 is redundant.

So far I think (?1 or (?2 is redundant at all.

I’m not questioning anyone’s knowledge, but I want to understand it through examples.

And since I have my opinion, I’m definitely a Russian troll.

Terry R

@Pan-Jan said in RegEx problems:

I have a request to show me a specific example,
when is it necessary to use this (?1)

If you want an example of where the ?1, ?2 are needed how about searching through old posts here. In particular I found this one which is just perfect for you to get a better understanding.
https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/16533/how-to-remove-empty-spaces-from-a-particular-tag-regular-expression
Often there are several versions of regexes which will solve the original posters problem. As long as they do fit the examples provided they can be regarded as correct.

Your recent images suggesting your revised version will add a space where none is, I do NOT believe it. If you want to prove that it does you need to make ALL characters show including line endings (carriage returns, line feeds etc). To do this use the view menu option to show other characters and “show all characters”. Then post the image again proving that ABC has no space behind and the regex adds one.

Good luck
Terry