Regex Help Wanted - Delete all lines containing "STRING"

Gary Smith

I have an output file created by program A that is then read by program B.

Program A generates and appends each file with “System Tag ID-DD/MM/YYYY”, these files can be in batches of 10 -> 1000

Program B does not appreciate this “erroneous” data so throws a wobbly when the file is imported.

I have no control over the source code for either program so cannot either of them to play nice.

Using N++, how would I go about using a regex to find each line containing the string “System Tag” then deleting that line in every open file?

I’ve been googling and found a few methods but none of them seem to search past the first line or return the results needed, so im obviously missing something huge

for example I found this on this community but adapting it fails to find any results (?i-s)^.MeX.\R (It is supposed to find each line containing MeX in any case and replace the line with BLANK when replace is used

Thank guys

Alan Kilborn

@Gary-Smith

how would I go about using a regex to find each line containing the string “System Tag” then deleting that line in every open file?

Search for: (?-is)^.*?System Tag.*\R and replace with nothing.
Use the Replace All in All Opened Documents button.

Phillip Stanhope

Can I suggest the “Sed” utility?
sed “/Regex/d” InFile > OutFile
“d” deletes the line containing the Regex.
Alternatively : sed -i “/Regex/d” FileName - “-i” changes the <file> in place.
Also : sed -i -r (extended Regex)
I use a .bat that requests the Input and Output file names, copies the Input file to the Output file and then does lots of substitutions. However Sed then creates a temporary file “Sedxxx” for each command which then need deleting.
If you have many files, you can create a DOS .bat file to process all files within a folder using the “FOR” command.
WIndows 7, Sed for windows.

Alan Kilborn

@Phillip-Stanhope said in Regex Help Wanted - Delete all lines containing "STRING":

Can I suggest the “Sed” utility?

You can, but really people are coming here looking for solutions to problems with the solutions involving Notepad++.

Directing them to non-Notepad++ utilities, when there are ways to do what they are requesting within Notepad++, is considered bad form and off-topic.

Gary Smith

@Alan-Kilborn Thanks for this alan, but think i’m missing something and just can’t get this to work. I have included a screenshot for the exact method im using and it still returns no results in the “replace” dialog box.

Do you have any ideas where I could be going wrong?

PeterJones

@Gary-Smith said in Regex Help Wanted - Delete all lines containing "STRING":

Do you have any ideas where I could be going wrong?

Your last line, which is the one that has System Tag on it, does not have a newline sequence, so \R has nothing to match. (?-is)^.*?System Tag.*(\R|\z) should work (see “Anchors” in the usermanual regex section)

Gary Smith

@PeterJones said in Regex Help Wanted - Delete all lines containing "STRING":

(?-is)^.?System Tag.(\R|\z)

Worked flawlessly , thanks a lot folks for all your help, just saves me a whole bunch of work :)