multiple text replacing with different text

Handa Flocka

Hi everyone

I am trying to change some multiplied same text with different more than one text example text:

Random
Random
Random
Random

to some different words at the same time for example words:

hello
hi
welcome
hey

I know it works when you change them one by one using CTRL + H and select all. but this time I have some different text to change at one time for saving time

PeterJones

@Handa-Flocka ,

Your request wasn’t abundantly clear, but I have a guess as to what you meant. (Using Random as the example is probably not the best choice, because we’re left to wonder whether every instance of the search-match will be the same text, or whether it will be different in each location.)

It might be possible using regexes, if you are willing to add the list of replacement words to the same document in some uniquely identifiable format. There have been examples of doing that in the past in this forum, and it wouldn’t surprise me if one of our regex guru dug one of those solutions out (or re-developed it on the fly).

However, if I were to solve a problem similar to this, I would probably fire up my PythonScript plugin and write a python-based script using editor.rereplace() to match the Random text and use a callback function to replace it with the next item from the list.

However, before any of us spend time developing a solution, it would be good of you to confirm my interpretation, and provide a couple of clarifications.

I assume you have data that looks like the text below. (I am using KEYWORD instead of Random to avoid the confusion; this means that I am assuming the text will be literally KEYWORD at any point in the document while you’re doing the search/replace.)

this is some text with KEYWORD multiple times, might have KEYWORD twice on a line,
or a line might have it never
KEYWORD
blah
KEYWORD
done

and then there is a list of words, like ONE TWO THREE FOUR that you want those replaced with:

this is some text with ONE multiple times, might have TWO twice on a line,
or a line might have it never
THREE
blah
FOUR
done

I don’t pretend that it’s really your data. Please confirm my interpretation: is that similar to the situation you have? If not, please give a better example of before/after data, so that we can better understand what you really have. (See the advice at the bottom for how to format the post like I did. Also, notice how my example had examples of text that changed, and examples of text that didn’t change. Edge cases and text that doesn’t change are as critical to such questions as the data that you do want changed.)

And for clarifications:

What do you want to happen if you have KEYWORD four times, but only have two replacement words? (for example, blah KEYWORD blah KEYWORD blah KEYWORD blah KEYWORD with ONE TWO)
- should it just not do any replacements, and give an error?
- should it just replace the first two KEYWORD instances: blah ONE blah TWO blah KEYWORD blah KEYWORD
- should it wrap around and start from the beginning of your replacement list again? blah ONE blah TWO blah ONE blah TWO
- something else I haven’t guessed
Similarly, what should happen if the replacement list is longer than the number of keywords? (for example, blah KEYWORD blah KEYWORD blah with ONE TWO THREE FOUR)
- my best guess is blah ONE blah TWO blah
- is it something different than I guessed?

----

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 literal text using the </> toolbar button or manual Markdown syntax. To make regex in red (and so they keep their special characters like *), use backticks, like `^.*?blah.*?\z`. 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.

Handa Flocka

Hi @PeterJones
Thank you and sorry for the confusion
you explained my idea exactly for how I want it to be
that was the same as what I meant,
I will give a more example with the word USA instead of using the word KEYWORD this time.

1- have you ever visited the USA
2- the USA Freedom Act.
3- she lives in the USA

I want to replace the word “USA”
To: my list contains different whole other countries names “by order”
1- CANADA 2- MEXICO 3- COSTA RICA

have you ever visited the CANADA
the MEXICO Freedom Act.
she lives in the COSTA RICA

same sentences just the “USA” changes

let’s say in the list of words that I want to change to
has more countries names more than what word “USA” is included in the text
I guess it’s the logic to just change where the word “USA” is included or
personally I would Accept whatever just to fix my current problem and save time

Handa Flocka

If my list has an insufficient number of words than of how many times the word “USA” included the best would be not to repeat the words from 1- 2- again from the start and just finish replacing

PeterJones

@Handa-Flocka ,

regex solution

This depends on how long your main data is; if it’s too long, the regex capture groups might run out of memory. But it might be worth trying.

For my “special formatting” for your replacement list, I am going to use a line with ~~~~~~, then ∙ followed by each replacement string. (I picked ∙ because it’s not likely to be in your existing data; you can choose a different separator if you like; just make sure it’s not found elsewhere, and that you change it throughout these instructions

Add the special formatting with the list at the end of your data:

1- have you ever visited the USA
2- the USA Freedom Act.
3- she lives in the USA

~~~~~~
∙CANADA∙MEXICO∙COSTA RICA

Hit Ctrl+HOME or equivalent to go to the first character in the file.
Search > Replace
- MODE = regular expression
- ☑ WRAP AROUND = make sure it’s checked on
- FIND = (?s)USA(.*?~+\s*)∙([^∙\r\n]*)
- REPLACE = ${2}${1}
- click FIND NEXT once, then hit REPLACE once for each replacement word (so three times for the three countries in the example). (REPLACE ALL will just replace the first instance because it’s capturing to nearly the end in order to delete each replace-text once it’s used)
Manually delete the ~~~~~~ line from the end

Python Script

This requires installing the PythonScript plugin. (You can do that using Plugins Admin)

Plugins > Python Script > New Script: saving as replaceList.py

Use the following as the text of the document, and SAVE

# encoding=utf-8
"""in response to https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/21225/

Written by @PeterJones 
Searches for keywordText multiple times, and replaces it with the next element of replacementList
"""
from Npp import *

keywordText = 'USA'
replacementList = [ 'CANADA', 'MEXICO', 'COSTA RICA' ]

counter = -1

def nextReplacement(m):
    global counter
    counter += 1
    return replacementList[counter] if counter < len(replacementList) else m.string

editor.beginUndoAction()
editor.replace(keywordText, nextReplacement)
editor.endUndoAction()

Change the keywordText and replacementList variables to match your desired KEYWORD and list of replacements, using the same syntax as shown in the example. SAVE
Open (or switch to) your file.
Plugins > Python Script > Scripts > replaceList
At this point, the replacement should be done. If you need to, a single UNDO should work to undo all the replacements

That sequence works for me on your example data

caveat emptor

This script seemed to work for me, based on my understanding of your issue, and is published here to help you learn how to do this. I make no guarantees or warranties as to the functionality for you. You are responsible to save and backup all data before and after running this script. If you want to use it long term, I recommend investing time in adding error checking and verifying with edge cases.

Alan Kilborn

@PeterJones said in multiple text replacing with different text:

Python Script

Interesting; when I tried the script I got this error:

    return replacementList[counter] if counter < len(replacementList) else m.string
<type 'exceptions.RuntimeError'>:  This method or property is not supported under Notepad++ PythonScript

I would guess this is related to usage of m.string which I have never seen before. Maybe this is only supported in a P.S. that is newer than the one I use: 1.5.4

Anyway, I tried out the script because I was going to suggest the following alternative method, and it just so happens that it avoids that error for me as well.

Change the “return” line to:

return replacementList[counter]

and change the “.replace” line to:

editor.replace(keywordText, nextReplacement, 0, 0, editor.getLength(), len(replacementList))

This is instructive because it shows how to use PythonScript code to limit the number of replacements made; in this case, to the length of the replacement list.

PeterJones

@Alan-Kilborn ,

I am using PythonScript 1.5.4, so that’s not it

Python 2.7.18 (v2.7.18:8d21aa21f2, Apr 20 2020, 13:25:05) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)]
Initialisation took 750ms
Ready.

Oh, wait, my example didn’t try to go beyond, so was never triggering the ELSE. when I add some more USA to the example data, then it does give me the error.

I confirmed in the PythonScript 1.5.4 docs that its MatchObject doesn’t implement the re.MatchObject’s .string() method.

However, since the match string will always be identical to keywordText (because it’s a text search, not a regex search), if I change that line to
return replacementList[counter] if counter < len(replacementList) else keywordText
… then the error goes away and everything works even with too many USA instances.

But yes, I like your idea of using the optional parameters to avoid having to do the conditional return.

PeterJones

ah, also, instead of m.string(), I can use m.group(0) – group#0 is the whole match, even when it’s not a grouped or regex-based replacement.

Handa Flocka

@PeterJones said in multiple text replacing with different text:

1- have you ever visited the USA
2- the USA Freedom Act.
3- she lives in the USA

thanks for the help @PeterJones much much appreciated
I have tried installing the python code without changing any of the text when I tried on this example:

1- have you ever visited the USA
2- the USA Freedom Act.
3- she lives in the USA

it does not change anything

PeterJones

@Handa-Flocka said in multiple text replacing with different text:

it does not change anything

Can you tell me the exact steps you took, because it works for me.

PeterJones

… for example, here’s a screen-capture video:

Handa Flocka

Now it works like a charm!! I forgot some steps during the process

both of them now are working perfectly
it would be preferred to use python script instead of regex in this process if I am dealing with huge data?

Thank you for your help so much appreciation man

PeterJones

@Handa-Flocka said in multiple text replacing with different text:

it would be preferred to use python script instead of regex in this process if I am dealing with huge data?

Correct. Large amounts of data will mean that the (.*?~+\s*) capture groups grows beyond the regex capture-group memory allocated in Notepad++.

Handa Flocka

got it!
Thank you and for the effort you put on this

PeterJones

@Handa-Flocka ,

I am replying to your Chat message here. Questions like this belong in the Forum posts, not in the chat.

Sorry If bothering you
I have tried again to run the same py script on some random code it didn’t want to change
code
EVENTS TYPE=keypress SELECTOR=“body>div.page_wrap>div.im_page_wrap.clearfix>div>div.im_history_col_wrap.noselect.im_history_loaded>div.im_history_selected_wrap>div>div.im_bottom_panel_wrap>div.im_send_panel_wrap.noselect>div>div>div>form>div.im_send_field_wrap.hasselect>div.composer_rich_textarea” CHARS=“TYPEE” MODIFIERS=shift
for example I am selecting word TYPEE
it doesn’t change at all

My guess is that the chat window got rid of the <open> tags on most of those. But the example included TYPEE, and that’s likely all that’s critical for the replacement.

Change replaceList.py so keywordText = 'TYPEE'; SAVE

Open file with example text

EVENTS TYPE=keypress SELECTOR=“body>div.page_wrap>div.im_page_wrap.clearfix>div>div.im_history_col_wrap.noselect.im_history_loaded>div.im_history_selected_wrap>div>div.im_bottom_panel_wrap>div.im_send_panel_wrap.noselect>div>div>div>form>div.im_send_field_wrap.hasselect>div.composer_rich_textarea” CHARS=“TYPEE” MODIFIERS=shift

Plugins > PythonScript > Scripts > replaceList

Result

EVENTS TYPE=keypress SELECTOR=“body>div.page_wrap>div.im_page_wrap.clearfix>div>div.im_history_col_wrap.noselect.im_history_loaded>div.im_history_selected_wrap>div>div.im_bottom_panel_wrap>div.im_send_panel_wrap.noselect>div>div>div>form>div.im_send_field_wrap.hasselect>div.composer_rich_textarea” CHARS=“CANADA” MODIFIERS=shift

… So TYPEE has become CANADA

So it works for me.

Handa Flocka

@PeterJones said in multiple text replacing with different text:

EVENTS TYPE=keypress SELECTOR=“body>div.page_wrap>div.im_page_wrap.clearfix>div>div.im_history_col_wrap.noselect.im_history_loaded>div.im_history_selected_wrap>div>div.im_bottom_panel_wrap>div.im_send_panel_wrap.noselect>div>div>div>form>div.im_send_field_wrap.hasselect>div.composer_rich_textarea” CHARS=“TYPEE” MODIFIERS=shift

@PeterJones my bad I thought the thread was locked!
the code works perfectly in one line
but If I tried something like this for example

EVENTS TYPE=keypress SELECTOR=“body>div.page_wrap>div.im_page_wrap.clearfix>div>div.im_history_col_wrap.noselect.im_history_loaded>div.im_history_selected_wrap>div>div.im_bottom_panel_wrap>div.im_send_panel_wrap.noselect>div>div>div>form>div.im_send_field_wrap.hasselect>div.composer_rich_textarea” CHARS=“TYPEE” MODIFIERS=shift
EVENTS TYPE=keypress SELECTOR=“body>div.page_wrap>div.im_page_wrap.clearfix>div>div.im_history_col_wrap.noselect.im_history_loaded>div.im_history_selected_wrap>div>div.im_bottom_panel_wrap>div.im_send_panel_wrap.noselect>div>div>div>form>div.im_send_field_wrap.hasselect>div.composer_rich_textarea” CHARS=“TYPEE” MODIFIERS=shift
EVENTS TYPE=keypress SELECTOR=“body>div.page_wrap>div.im_page_wrap.clearfix>div>div.im_history_col_wrap.noselect.im_history_loaded>div.im_history_selected_wrap>div>div.im_bottom_panel_wrap>div.im_send_panel_wrap.noselect>div>div>div>form>div.im_send_field_wrap.hasselect>div.composer_rich_textarea” CHARS=“TYPEE” MODIFIERS=shift
EVENTS TYPE=keypress SELECTOR=“body>div.page_wrap>div.im_page_wrap.clearfix>div>div.im_history_col_wrap.noselect.im_history_loaded>div.im_history_selected_wrap>div>div.im_bottom_panel_wrap>div.im_send_panel_wrap.noselect>div>div>div>form>div.im_send_field_wrap.hasselect>div.composer_rich_textarea” CHARS=“TYPEE” MODIFIERS=shift

then it will not work!

PeterJones

@Handa-Flocka said in multiple text replacing with different text:

then it will not work!

Sorry, I don’t know what you’re doing differently. With no change compared to my sequence above (that is, with TYPEE as the keyword and the same list of three countries as the replacementList), I get:

EVENTS TYPE=keypress SELECTOR=“body>div.page_wrap>div.im_page_wrap.clearfix>div>div.im_history_col_wrap.noselect.im_history_loaded>div.im_history_selected_wrap>div>div.im_bottom_panel_wrap>div.im_send_panel_wrap.noselect>div>div>div>form>div.im_send_field_wrap.hasselect>div.composer_rich_textarea” CHARS=“CANADA” MODIFIERS=shift
EVENTS TYPE=keypress SELECTOR=“body>div.page_wrap>div.im_page_wrap.clearfix>div>div.im_history_col_wrap.noselect.im_history_loaded>div.im_history_selected_wrap>div>div.im_bottom_panel_wrap>div.im_send_panel_wrap.noselect>div>div>div>form>div.im_send_field_wrap.hasselect>div.composer_rich_textarea” CHARS=“MEXICO” MODIFIERS=shift
EVENTS TYPE=keypress SELECTOR=“body>div.page_wrap>div.im_page_wrap.clearfix>div>div.im_history_col_wrap.noselect.im_history_loaded>div.im_history_selected_wrap>div>div.im_bottom_panel_wrap>div.im_send_panel_wrap.noselect>div>div>div>form>div.im_send_field_wrap.hasselect>div.composer_rich_textarea” CHARS=“COSTA RICA” MODIFIERS=shift
EVENTS TYPE=keypress SELECTOR=“body>div.page_wrap>div.im_page_wrap.clearfix>div>div.im_history_col_wrap.noselect.im_history_loaded>div.im_history_selected_wrap>div>div.im_bottom_panel_wrap>div.im_send_panel_wrap.noselect>div>div>div>form>div.im_send_field_wrap.hasselect>div.composer_rich_textarea” CHARS=“TYPEE” MODIFIERS=shift

Since my list only had 3 countries, the fourth TYPEE remains unchanged.

Here is my exact replaceList.py with your data:

# encoding=utf-8
"""in response to https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/21225/

Written by @PeterJones

Searches for the value of keywordText multiple times, and replaces it with the next element of replacementList
"""
from Npp import *

keywordText = 'TYPEE'
replacementList = [ 'CANADA', 'MEXICO', 'COSTA RICA' ]

counter = -1

def nextReplacement(m):
    global counter
    counter += 1
    return replacementList[counter] if counter < len(replacementList) else m.group(0)

editor.beginUndoAction()
editor.replace(keywordText, nextReplacement)
editor.endUndoAction()

You might want to go to Plugins > PythonScript > Show Console and look for errors. (You can right click in the console window, click Clear, then run the script again on your data file. If anything is printed in the console, it’s an error message.) The error message will likely indicate where you have a typo or syntax error in the script that was introduced when you put in your new keywordText and replacementList. If you need help with that, copy/paste the errors you see into the forum (as well as your modified copy of replaceList.py)

Handa Flocka

This post is deleted!

Handa Flocka

This post is deleted!

Handa Flocka

@PeterJones After your update it’s a piece of art now!
thanks again