Ok, Guy is putting on a “clinic”, in this case for “All”.
In that case, “Nice Job!”

I’m going to explain the benefit of the atomic quantifiers, by adding the + symbol after the greedy quantifier !

Let’s consider these four lines text below, with 2 without leading space chars and 2 with four leading space chars :

abc
"abc"
    abc
    "abc"

And let’s suppose that we want to surround the string abc with double quotes, only in line 1 and 3

You could say that the following search regex

SEARCH ^(\x20*)(?!")(.+)

Would match the line 1 and 3, only. However, it also matches the fourth line ! Why ?

Well, a very important thing to remember, about regex engines, is that, regex engines try, by all means, to get an overall match. In other words, they, desperately, try to find a solution, by testing all the possible combinations, provided by the search regex !

So, let’s imagine the regex engine at beginning of the line 4 of our sample :

• Once the regex engine has consumed all the possible space chars ( ^(\x20*) ), it tests if the next char is not a " character. As it’s false, this means that the negative look-ahead return FALSE and no match can occur

• The regex engine don’t give up and backtracks, considering all space chars, but the last, as matching the ^(\x20*) regex, too

• Thus, the next char is the last space character, which does match the last .+ regex part and is not a double quote ! So, the (?!") part return TRUE and the overall regex can match the fourth line.

• But we do not want this match as, after replacement, we would get "" ......."". So, in our regex, the solution is to use the atomic quantifier *+, instead of the greedy quantifier *. Indeed, when the regex engine meets an atomic quantifier, it will never backtrack inside the quantified area !

SEARCH ^(\x20*+)(?!")(.+)

• Thus, after matching all the space chars, it just tests if the next char is not a " character. As it’s false, this means that the negative look-ahead is FALSE. But, as the backtracking feature is forbidden, the regex engine stops and returns no match , for the fourth line contents

As a summary, by preventing the regex engine from backtracking, the atomic quantifiers may reduce, drastically, the number of combinations, tested by the regex engine, and/or avoid testing some alternatives, particularly in recursive regexes.That leads to safer and quicker regexes’s execution !

BR

guy038

I don’t think it is really worth showing a total noob some of the other ways at this point, because the confusion factor would just skyrocket.

It appears that I was disagreed with on the above point.

BobM.

I guess that you want to surround any text after the string title = with two double-quotes "

If so, this regex S/R is the right one :

SEARCH (?-si)^(title\x20*=\x20*+)(?!")(.+)

REPLACE \1"\2"

As usual :

• Tick the Wrap around option and select the Regular expression search mode

• Click, either, several times on the Replace button or once only on the Replace All button

Notes :

• The part (?-si)^(title\x20*=\x20*) selects the string title, with that exact case ( (?-i) ), at beginning of line ( ^ ), followed with the equal sign ( = ), possibly preceded and/or followed with space char(s) ( \x20* ) and stores all in group 1

• Remark that the \x20*+ regex range of space chars, after the equal sign, defines an atomic structure. This means that no backtracking will be done, by the regex engine, in that range of spaces. In other words, this means : "search for possible space chars, after the = sign, and verify, immediately that the next char is not a double-quote sign "

• As said above, the part (?!") is a negative look-ahead structure. which tests, if, at current position, a " symbol can be found. If not, the condition is considered as TRUE and the current match attempt is OK, so far

• Then, the part (.+) matches the remaining standard characters of current line and stores them as group 2

• The replacement part \1"\2" rewrites these two groups, with two doubles quotes surrounding the group 2

Remark that the (?!") regex part avoids to surround an area, already surrounded with double-quotes, which would give, for instance, ““some text””, in case you would click twice on the Replace All button

@carolina-number-1, do not bother about atomic quantifiers and look-around structures, for the moment !, You have plenty of basic regex expressions to learn before ;-))

Best Regards,

guy038

BobM.

Hey Thanks!! Never been called a a total noob before… I am so honored…lol

Warmest Greets…Stay Safe!!

BobM.

So, presuming you have:

title=JFAI_737_300_AirChina

and you want that to be changed into:

title="JFAI_737_300_AirChina"

and that is the only thing you have on the line…

Then you could do:

find: (?-s)^title=(.+)
repl: title="${1}"
mode: Regular expression

There are of course some other ways, but this is probably the simplest, and I don’t think it is really worth showing a total noob some of the other ways at this point, because the confusion factor would just skyrocket.

Just curious and maybe it can’t be done… but lets say I have 100 Fltsims and I want to be apostrophe’s at the beginning and end of the title line only…can that be done…here’s a sample:

[fltsim.1]
title=“JFAI_737_300_AirChina”
sim=TrafficGlobal
model=
panel=x
sound=
texture=AirChina
atc_id=B737
atc_flight_number=
atc_airline=AIR CHINA
atc_parking_codes=CCA
atc_parking_types=GATE,RAMP
ui_manufacturer=Boeing
ui_type=B733
ui_variation=Air China
description=AI
ui_typerole=Traffic Global AI
ui_createdby=Just Flight

[fltsim.2]
title=“JFAI_737_300_AllNippon”
sim=TrafficGlobal
model=
panel=x
sound=
texture=AllNippon
atc_id=B737
atc_flight_number=
atc_airline=ALL NIPPON
atc_parking_codes=ANA
atc_parking_types=GATE,RAMP
ui_manufacturer=Boeing
ui_type=B733
ui_variation=All Nippon
description=AI
ui_typerole=Traffic Global AI
ui_createdby=Just Flight

So in other words…I would open the document in Notepad++ and want to put the apostrophe at the beginning and end of just the “Title line” for each fltsim section…1,2,3, etc… Might have to do a couple thousand of these…lol

i learned so much yesterday on the little I did that now I am dangerous!!!

BobM.

Hey Thank you…You are awesome…thanks for all your help!! Defeinitely check out the faq…

BobM.

Your last post isn’t quite clear but I guess you would like to add the line sound = "sound" ; sound folder right after each line beginning with isuserselectable = 0, whatever the contents of a possible comment area, coming next the colon character

If so, change the search regex, only, as :

SEARCH (?-si)isuserselectable = 0.*\R\K

• The (?-s) part means that any dot meta-character matches a single standard character

• The .* syntax, before the \R , represents the area, possibly empty, of standard character(s), after the string = 0 and before the EOL chars

I advice you to get documentation on the regex world, in this FAQ

Best regards,

guy038

isUserSelectable = 0 ; (on the end of search line after 0 ; \R\K

and still replace with:

sound = “sound” ; sound folder (sound = “sound” ; sound folder\r\n)

Thank you,
Bob M.

Hey Thanks All!!!

You are great!!!

I am 70 and a tad slow but getting it, i think lol

BR

guy038

But, because you’re an admitted noob, why not do a simpler-to-understand Extended mode replacement, like this:

Notice:

• the Search mode has been set to Extended – this allows you to do fancy things (over and above what a Normal search allows) like specify multiple lines in your data (here you are replacing one-line with two (the original plus a new one).

• the \r\n in the Replace with data is what creates a second line in your data; it is the “dividing point” between two lines

Is this easier to see/understand?

yeah…I think I lost my “isuserselectable = 0 ; flag off for non selectable planes” because it replaced it with the sound stuff…lol but it added sound i think 736 times…so rather than replace that line…insert the sound line below it…this was on a trial cfg not the real one yet till i get this down.

So, when @guy038 said:

SEARCH (?-i)isuserselectable = 0 ; flag off for non selectable planes\R\K

REPLACE sound = “sound” ; sound folder\r\n ( OR sound = “sound” ; sound folder\n if UNIX files )

He meant for “SEARCH” that you would put this in the box labeled Find what:

And correspondingly, “REPLACE” means look for the Replace with box.

Does that help?

not sure about what of this goes in the search line?
After searching for the line isuserselectable = 0 ; flag off for non selectable planes, respecting the case (?-i) and its line-ending characters \R, the \K feature resets the search and simply matches the zero-length location, right after this line

once i get the hang of this…then i have maybe 100 more airplanes …lol

not sure about what of this goes in the search line?
After searching for the line isuserselectable = 0 ; flag off for non selectable planes, respecting the case (?-i) and its line-ending characters \R, the \K feature resets the search and simply matches the zero-length location, right after this line

total newbie here

:-) Welcome.

If you have questions about what advice we give, certainly ask. :-)

In the “Replace All”…don’t see a “exclusively”,

LOL. Guy is French so sometimes his wording is “interesting”. :-)
(In general though, his English is very good, indeed)

Click, exclusively on the Replace All button

What is meant here is that you can’t use the Replace button for this action; you have to use Replace All to perform the replacement.