I’m still trying to understand your method to know more about NPP.

Thanks again. Have a nice day !

Ah…Phhhffff ! I finally found out a method ! It wasn’t that easy because your data are a bit complex !

• Firstly , a global section, begins line with a space followed with an opening brace { till right before an other similar scheme. Asbraces are used in many other locations, we’ll have to delimit these sections more precisely !

• Secondly, inside a global section, the temporary_opinion sub-region may have three different syntaxes :

temporary_opinion •••••• { ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• }LF   (  2,779 occurrences )
temporary_opinion •••••• { ••••••••• { •••••••••••• } •••••••••• }LF   ( 17,224 occurrences )
temporary_opinion •••••• { ••••• { ••••• } ••••• { ••••• } ••••• }LF   (     78 occurrences )

So we’ll have to detect these three syntaxes, at the same time

• Thirdly, we must delete some temporary_opinion sub-region ONLY in global sections which verify these three criteria :

  • It must contain the string target=18028

  • It must contain the temporary_opinion sub-region with modifier = "love_opinion"

  • It must contain the temporary_opinion sub-region with modifier = "friendliness_opinion"

Note that the first criterion comes first, in a section, but the two others occur in any order !

So we’ll need to distinguish these specific sections, where the suppression process will occur, in a second time !

• Fourthly, in these specific sections, we have to delete any temporary_opinion sub-region when the modifier is different from "love_opinion" and different from "friendliness_opinion".

But, as these other sub-regions may come before and/or after the sub-regions with "love_opinion" and "friendliness_opinion", we’ll have to add a mark at the end of general section, to be sure that all the temporary_opinion sub-regions, under target=18028, and different from "love_opinion" and "friendliness_opinion", will be matched and deleted

Okay, let’s go :

• This first S/R changes the beginning of any global section, using a symbol not used yet, in your file ( I chose the ¤ symbol )

• Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

  • SEARCH ^\x20\{

  • REPLACE ¤

  • Tick the Wrap around option

  • Select the Regular expression search mode

  • Click on the Replace All button

=> 27,709 replacements

From now on, if we force the regex engine to look for characters different from ¤, we’ll be sure that any match will be a subset of a global section, only. Moreover, it clearly shows the beginning of a next global section

The second S/R, below, using the free-spacing mode, (?x), will add a @ symbol, in a new line, right before the next global section :

(?x)                                           #  FREE-SPACING mode
^ \h+ target= 18028 \R   (?: [^¤\r\n]*\R )*    #  Find the line 'target=18028' and possible range of COMPLETE lines, till ...

#  Find a **`temporary_opinion`** sub-region with string "love_opinion" or "friendliness_opinion"
\h+ temporary_opinion = { \R \h+ modifier= "(?:(love)|friendliness) _opinion" (?: [^¤{}]+ { [^¤{}]+ } ){0,2} [^¤{}]+ } \R

(?: [^¤\r\n]*\R )*                             #  Find possible range of COMPLETE lines, till ...

#  Find a **`temporary_opinion`** sub-region with string "friendliness_opinion" or "love_opinion"
\h+ temporary_opinion = { \R \h+ modifier= "(?(1)friendliness|love) _opinion" (?: [^¤{}]+ { [^¤{}]+ } ){0,2} [^¤{}]+ } \R

[^¤]*                                          #  Find the GREATEST range of chars, DIFFERENT from '¤' ( so ENDING right before a '¤' )

• Select all the text above, between (?x) and ( so ENDING right before a '¤' )

• Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

  • The Search what: zone should contain the selection

  • REPLACE $0@\n

  • Tick the Wrap around option

  • Select the Regular expression search mode

  • Click on the Replace All button

=> 1,692 replacements

The third S/R, below, in the free-spacing mode too, will delete, in the specific zones ending with a @ symbol, any temporary_opinion sub-region with modifier different from, either, "love_opinion" and "friendliness_opinion" :

(?x)              #  The next line finds ANY temporary_opinion sub-region, DIFFERENT from "love_opinion" and "friendliness_opinion",
                  #    WHATEVER the 3 POSSIBLE syntaxes
^ \h+ temporary_opinion = { \R \h+ modifier= (?!"love_opinion") (?!"friendliness_opinion") (?: [^¤{}]+ { [^¤{}]+ } ){0,2} [^¤{}]+ } \R
(?= [^¤]* @ )     #  This line ensures that the SUPPRESSIONS only occur in the specific regions matching the 3 CRITERIA !   

• Select all the text above, between (?x) and matching the 3 CRITERIA !

• Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

  • The Search what: zone should contain the selection

  • REPLACE Leave EMPTY

  • Tick the Wrap around option

  • Select the Regular expression search mode

  • Click on the Replace All button

=> 1,483 replacements

Finally, this fourth regex S/R will delete all the temporary ¤ and @ symbols :

• Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

  • SEARCH ^(¤)|^@\R

  • REPLACE ?1\x20{

  • Tick the Wrap around option

  • Select the Regular expression search mode

  • Click on the Replace All button

=> 29,401 replacements

Best Regards,

guy038

P.S. :

It remains 1 global section, with target different from 18028 :

 {
			owner=30639
			target=15484
			temporary_opinion={
				modifier="friendliness_opinion"
				start_date=1074.3.4
				expiration_date=1082.5.23
				converging={
					days=268
					opinion=10.8
				}
				value=10
			}
			temporary_opinion={
				modifier="love_opinion"
				start_date=1074.3.14
				expiration_date=1098.11.9
				converging={
					days=258
					opinion=15.4
				}
				value=15
			}
			scripted_relations={
				potential_lover={ 0 }
			}
		}

I’ve found it, empirically, with the regex :

(?x-s) target= (?!18028) .+\R (.+\R){1,4} .+? "friendliness_opinion"\R (.+\R){1,9} .+? "love_opinion"\R

In progress ! Be patient !

guy038

There are some paragraphs which have them all, for example like below:

{
owner=…
target=18028
temporary_opinion={
modifier=…
…
}
temporary_opinion={
modifier=…
…
}
temporary_opinion={
modifier=“love_opinion”
…
}
temporary_opinion={
modifier=“friendliness_opinion”
…
}
}
In those paragraphs, I want to delete all “temporary_opinion” graphs which are not “love_opinion” or “friendliness_opinion".

If “love opinion” or “friendliness_opinion” stand alone, or not have “target=18028”, so just ignore them.

The result should be

{
owner=…
target=18028
temporary_opinion={
modifier=“love_opinion”
…
}
temporary_opinion={
modifier=“friendliness_opinion”
…
}
}

Thanks so much for your help.

One more question :

• Your file contains 20 strings “love_opinion”, in target blocks different from 18028

• Your file contains 868 strings “friendliness_opinion”, in target blocks different from 18028

Do you want to remove or keep these lines ?

BR

guy038

I want to do exactly as 2nd post.

In 1st post, I wanted to say in short but maybe it leads to wrong meaning. Sorry about it.

You can open my file directly with Notepad++, no need to change to .txt :D

OK, I’ve got your file, that I simply changed as a .txt file. Nice !

Now, it’s still unclear ! In your first post, you said :

… so I want to use Replace function to delete all “love opinion”

And in your second post, you said :

I want to delete all “temporary_opinion” which are not “love_opinion” or “**friendliness_opinion**” in those paragraphs.

Once I know what is exactly needed, with the true file, it should be easy to found out a solution;-))

BR

guy038

I attach screen picture here

There are many paragraphs start with “owner=…” and “target=18028”, I want to delete all “temporary_opinion” which are not “love_opinion” or “friendliness_opinion” in those paragraphs.

Thanks any help in advance.

OK, So, here is the road map :

• Open your file in N++

• Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + F )

• SEARCH (?s-i)^target=18028\R\Ktemporary_opinion=\{.+?"love_opinion".+?(?=^temporary_opinion)

• REPLACE Leave EMPTY

• Tick the Wrap around option

• Select the Regular expression search mode

• Click on the Replace All only ( Do not use the Replace button )

Et voilà !

Notes :

• First the modifiers (?s-i) means that the dot regex symbol, ., will match any character and that the search is sensitive to case

• Then the part ^target=18028\R looks for the literal string target=18028, with this exact case, at beginning of line ( ^ ) followed with its EOL characters ( \R )

• Now the \K assertion resets the working position and cancels any previous match

• So, the part temporary_opinion=\{ look for the literal string temporary_opinion={, with this exact case

• Followed with the smallest non-null range of any char ( .+?) …

• Till the literal string "love_opinion"…

• Followed with an other smallest non-null range of any char (.+?) …

• which ends when it’s followed with an other literal string temporary_opinion which begins a line, due to the look-ahead structure (?=^temporary_opinion)

• As the Replacement zone is empty, all this multi-lines range of text is then deleted

Best Regards,

guy038