need help with deleting after 52nd column only if the line matches criteria.

Richard Skinner

I’m at a roadblock.
I’m trying to delete everything after http://domain/api/file.php?id=random7numbers

My site was using self hosting videos with the mysite/tutorials/fileidnumber-tutorialcategorynames-subcategory.mp4

Each url is setup this way…
Video TItle
URL to the video poster graphic
URL to video file content (this has the random stuff at the end I need to delete off)
Blank line
Next video 3 lines
blank line… etc

I’m new to notepad expressions… not sure if I should use a set number of wild card spots for the random7numbers position or if there’s a way to just delete everything after the 52nd column in the lines that start with the url… .

End goal is to get a python script to get the txt and make it into a m3u8 playlist for my website. I have thousands of how to videos for my photography site and the files are pulled in from a cdn with an api…

guy038

Hello, @richard-skinner and All,

Here is the road map to delete all characters after column 52, in lines beginning with the address :

Open your file in Notepad++
Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )
SEARCH ^(\Qhttp://domain/api/file.php?id=random7numbers\E.{8}).+
REPLACE \1
Tick the Wrap around option
Select the Regular expression search mode
Click on the Replace All button

So, for instance, this example text :

http://domain/api/file.php?id=random7numbers12345678oiuzerz fkp zejofi qpfk
http://domain/api/file.php?id=random7numbers12345678This is a test
http://domain/api/file.php?id=random7numbers12345678ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

would be changed into :

http://domain/api/file.php?id=random7numbers12345678
http://domain/api/file.php?id=random7numbers12345678
http://domain/api/file.php?id=random7numbers12345678

Best Regards,

guy038

Richard Skinner

@guy038 said in need help with deleting after 52nd column only if the line matches criteria.:

SEARCH ^(\Qhttp://domain/api/file.php?id=random7numbers\E.{8}).+

The random7numbers is just that, 7 random numeric characters… So that search criteria doesn’t bring nothing up…

example
http://domain/api/file.php?id=2673483/TitleOfClass/TitleOfLesson

PeterJones

@Richard-Skinner ,

Oddly enough, when you misrepresent your data, the free gift of help provided by the people that volunteer our time in this forum will not match your actual data, because we aren’t mind readers.

Follow the advice below, and you will get better help. Ignore this advice to your own detriment.

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Do you want regex search/replace help? Then please be patient and polite, show some effort, and be willing to learn; answer questions and requests for clarification that are made of you. All example text should be marked as plain text using the </> toolbar button or manual Markdown syntax. Screenshots can be pasted from the clipboard to your post using Ctrl+V to show graphical items, but any text should be included as literal text in your post so we can easily copy/paste your data. Show the data you have and the text you want to get from that data; include examples of things that should match and be transformed, and things that don’t match and should be left alone; show edge cases and make sure you examples are as varied as your real data. Show the regex you already tried, and why you thought it should work; tell us what’s wrong with what you do get… Read the official NPP Searching / Regex docs and the forum’s Regular Expression FAQ. If you follow these guidelines, you’re much more likely to get helpful replies that solve your problem in the shortest number of tries.

Alan Kilborn

Two obviously conflicting requirements?:

need help with deleting after 52nd column only if the line matches criteria
delete everything after http://domain/api/file.php?id=random7numbers

Clearly the second requirement is specifying something much less than 52 columns, thus: CONFLICT

Richard Skinner

@Alan-Kilborn

with mydomain.net/path to the php/file.php?id=7777777 (the random ID for my files, aka 7randomnumbers) it equals 52 columns

litos81

@Richard-Skinner here’s a slightly modified version of @guy038 solution:
Find what: ^(\Qhttp://domain/api/file.php?id=\E.{7}).+ and keep everything else as he said. It reads an url until the ‘?id= plus 7 random characters’ bit, and the replacement will remove anything that goes after that.

PeterJones

@Richard-Skinner ,

Rather than arguing with those who are trying to help you, why not provide better example data, for both “before” and “after” the transformation you want, that matches your description of the data, so that we have a better understanding of what you’re trying to achieve? Since your descriptions don’t match the example text, it’s rather difficult for us to come up with a regex that will work with your data. If column number is the important thing, then focus on columns in your description and example data; if the important thing is actually anything after the seven digits of ?id=7777777, then focus on that string and not column number. But insisting on 52 characters when your example data isn’t 52 characters long is … tiring.

Even though you haven’t shown that you understood or took my advice to heart, I’ll give you two guesses: one that assumes that the critical piece of information is 52 characters, and one that assumes that the id is the critical piece:

52 char

FIND = (?-s)^(.{52}).*$
- Explanation: turn off .-matches-space, match beginning of line, match 52 characters and store in group 1, match remaining characters on line
REPLACE = $1
- replace with contents of group 1 (so effectively deletes everything after the first 52 characters)
MODE = Regular Expression

ID

FIND = (?-s)(\?id=\d{7}).*
- Explanation turn off .-matches-space, match ?id= followed by 7 digits and store in group 1, match remaining characters on line
REPLACE = $1
- replace with contents of group 1 (so effectively deletes everything after the 7-digit ID)
MODE = regular expression