Adding parentheses around xml tags.

Richard Howard

Greetings.
I have a need to add wrapping parentheses around "xref" tagging in my xml based technical manuals.
It’s a little complicated because some of the xrefs already have the parens, and some don’t need them.
However, I think the xref tags that need the parens are all preceded by a blank space.
Here are some examples.
This is a case where the parens are not needed:

<ref-setup-item><xref wpid="M50026"/></ref-setup-item>

Here is a case where the parens already exist:

<para>Inspect cable identification band (<xref
figid="T5A088-M8T01-036fig1"/>, Item 2).</para>

Here is an example of where they need to be added:

<item>Replace or repair connector <xref wpid="M50026"/></item>

As you can see in these examples, the only one with a leading blank space is the case where I need to add parentheses.

Here is what the desired coding structure should look like:

<item>Replace or repair connector (<xref wpid="M50026"/>)</item>

So, the search would be for xrefs with a leading space. The open paren would go after the space and the closing paren would go after the xref tag closure /> .

Looking for a regex to handle this across many files.
Thanks.

PeterJones

@Richard-Howard ,

Thank you for the before and after data, and giving examples of lines that shouldn’t change and lines that should. That makes it easier.

Given the data

not needed:
<ref-setup-item><xref wpid="M50026"/></ref-setup-item>

not needed:
<para>Inspect cable identification band (<xref
figid="T5A088-M8T01-036fig1"/>, Item 2).</para>

needed:
<item>Replace or repair connector <xref wpid="M50026"/></item>

peter guesses it's needed:
<item>Replace or repair connector <xref 
wpid="M50026"/></item>

FIND = (?s)\x20(<xref.*?/>)
REPLACE = \x20$$1$
MODE = regular expression

gives:

not needed:
<ref-setup-item><xref wpid="M50026"/></ref-setup-item>

not needed:
<para>Inspect cable identification band (<xref
figid="T5A088-M8T01-036fig1"/>, Item 2).</para>

needed:
<item>Replace or repair connector (<xref wpid="M50026"/>)</item>

peter guesses it's needed:
<item>Replace or repair connector (<xref 
wpid="M50026"/>)</item>

I added a fourth condition with a newline in the needs-parentheses-xref, because based on your multiline doesnt-need, I thought you might also have multiline does-need. If not, change the (?s) to (?-s), and it will no longer match multiline xref.

Also, in both the FIND and REPLACE I used \x20 – that’s regex-speak for character-at-hex-value 20, which is the space character at ASCII 32. I used that rather than a literal space in the search and replace to make it easier to see in the forum; in the regex, you can use either a literal space or the \x20 in either of those locations.

The parentheses in the FIND are used for creating a group, so they do not mean literal parentheses in the search. The parentheses in the REPLACE would also have special meaning, except I “escaped” them by using $ and $

Richard Howard

@PeterJones
Peter, that was a good guess! Yes, I’d say it’s possible the tagging could cross lines.
I’ll give this a go and see how it works out.
Appreciate it!

Richard Howard

@Richard-Howard
Humm. It didn’t find any matches.
Here is a code example it did not find:

<para>Install LSB cover assembly <xref wpid="M40032"/>.</para>

I’m using Find in Files

PeterJones

@Richard-Howard said in Adding parentheses around xml tags.:

<para>Install LSB cover assembly <xref wpid=“M40032”/>.</para>

It matches that text for me in a single file

I made two files, each containing:

not needed:
<ref-setup-item><xref wpid="M50026"/></ref-setup-item>

not needed:
<para>Inspect cable identification band (<xref
figid="T5A088-M8T01-036fig1"/>, Item 2).</para>

needed:
<item>Replace or repair connector <xref wpid="M50026"/></item>

peter guesses it's needed:
<item>Replace or repair connector <xref
wpid="M50026"/></item>

<para>Install LSB cover assembly <xref wpid="M40032"/>.</para>

Then I ran Find in Files > Find All, and it worked as expected, finding 3 instances in each that matched:

Richard Howard

@PeterJones
So odd. I can’t see what I’m doing different/wrong?
I tried a single file containing search criteria:

para>Install LSB cover assembly <xref wpid="M40032"/>.</para>

Still not finding it?

Ideas?

Richard Howard

@Richard-Howard
I think I got it Peter.
I must have had a space in the front of the Find criteria.
It’s finding it now.
Thank you!!

Richard Howard

@Richard-Howard
Just as a follow-up, this appears to have solved my need, saving me hours of edit time.
Thank you!!