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    Replacing variable length file paths in a GEDCOM file

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    • Alan KilbornA
      Alan Kilborn @Web Master
      last edited by Alan Kilborn

      @web-master said in Replacing variable length file paths in a GEDCOM file:

      Something like this:

      Find: (?-s)^(1 FILE ).+/
      Replace: ${1}/Smith_1234/
      Search mode: Regular expression

      but some of the files have 1million lines!!!

      With that much data, before any important transformation operation, please back up your data!

      Web MasterW 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • Alan KilbornA
        Alan Kilborn @Web Master
        last edited by

        @web-master

        BTW, these settings are meaningless together:

        Search Mode = NORMAL
        Dot Matches Newline = NOT CHECKED

        “Dot Matches Newline” only matters when Search Mode = Regular expression

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Web MasterW
          Web Master @Alan Kilborn
          last edited by

          @alan-kilborn To be honest I had no idea of the relevance of the dot line

          Thanks for the speed of response and the suggestion. I will let that rip on a test file later!

          Paul

          Alan KilbornA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Alan KilbornA
            Alan Kilborn @Web Master
            last edited by Alan Kilborn

            @web-master said in Replacing variable length file paths in a GEDCOM file:

            no idea of the relevance of the dot line

            Ticking that box is usually not a good idea unless you really know what you are doing.

            In the expression I gave you, the tick state of the box is irrelevant because I lead off my expression with (?-s) which is secret-code for “untick the box”.

            The box goes to what a . in the expression can match. If unticked, it can’t match a line-ending; if ticked, it can. Since .+ means to match “any character as many times as possible”, it really does matter if you want your search to possibly match across many lines or stay on one line. From your description in your problem, you just want it on one line. Hence the use of the unticked box equivalent (?-s)

            PeterJonesP Web MasterW 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
            • PeterJonesP
              PeterJones @Alan Kilborn
              last edited by

              @alan-kilborn

              Given that the “Dot Matches Newline” info is part of the question template, and ++@Web-Master obviously made use of that template, I am just happy to see evidence that some users are actually able to follow directions. ;-) I’d much rather have users give us that info when it’s not needed then vice versa.

              @Web-Master, so that you know: this puts you in good stead relative to many question-askers here. So kudos. :-)

              Web MasterW 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • Web MasterW
                Web Master @Alan Kilborn
                last edited by

                @alan-kilborn The file could contain thousands of lines that all start "FILE 1 ", does that change things? They will be randomly scattered (well not actually random, but for these purposes they can be considered to be so)

                Alan KilbornA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Web MasterW
                  Web Master @PeterJones
                  last edited by

                  @peterjones As webmaster for a society where our dempgraphic is 55 - 95, having to deal with questions like “Why doesn’t it work?” and “What do you mean by right-click?”, I frequently have to tell people to ‘follow the friggin’ instructions’ (expletives deleted.)

                  I’m a complete numpty about regex though, so I’m sure I will tax your paitence in other ways!

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Alan KilbornA
                    Alan Kilborn @Web Master
                    last edited by

                    @web-master said in Replacing variable length file paths in a GEDCOM file:

                    The file could contain thousands of lines that all start "FILE 1 ", does that change things?

                    Nope, that’s what was anticipated from your problem description.

                    I’m sure with your attitude you could become adept at regex; there are resources on the FAQ page that you should check out.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                    • Web MasterW
                      Web Master @Alan Kilborn
                      last edited by

                      @alan-kilborn said in Replacing variable length file paths in a GEDCOM file:

                      @web-master said in Replacing variable length file paths in a GEDCOM file:

                      Something like this:

                      Find: (?-s)^(1 FILE ).+/
                      Replace: ${1}/Smith_1234/
                      Search mode: Regular expression

                      but some of the files have 1million lines!!!

                      With that much data, before any important transformation operation, please back up your data!

                      Wow! Got it in one! It worked.

                      Mind you, the file I chose at random to test it on has a variation on the theme because instead of each line starting "1 FILE " they started "2 FILE ". But tweaking the expression fixed that. What would the syntax be for any line starting 0 - 9 then FILE, please?

                      PeterJonesP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • PeterJonesP
                        PeterJones @Web Master
                        last edited by PeterJones

                        @web-master said in Replacing variable length file paths in a GEDCOM file:

                        What would the syntax be for any line starting 0 - 9 then FILE, please?

                        \d means match a single digit (0-9); \d+ means match one or more digits (0-99999…)

                        Web MasterW 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • Web MasterW
                          Web Master @PeterJones
                          last edited by

                          @peterjones said in Replacing variable length file paths in a GEDCOM file:

                          @web-master said in Replacing variable length file paths in a GEDCOM file:

                          What would the syntax be for any line starting 0 - 9 then FILE, please?

                          \d means match a single digit (0-9); \d+ means match one or more digits (0-99999…)

                          OK so if the Find what becomes…

                          (?-s)^\d( FILE ).+/

                          … the replace with gets SNAFU’d and loses the inital number

                          FILE /Smith_1234/Robert Frederic & Audrey Lilian - 3.jpg

                          instead of

                          2 FILE /Smith_1234/Robert Frederic & Audrey Lilian - 3.jpg

                          How do I pass the initial number from the find to the replace please?

                          PeterJonesP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • PeterJonesP
                            PeterJones @Web Master
                            last edited by PeterJones

                            @web-master ,

                            Why did you take it out of the parentheses? You had (?-s)^(1 FILE ).+/, and I suggested that you use \d instead of 1, which would have been (?-s)^(\d FILE ).+/ … if the \d is in the parentheses, it will be included in the replacement using the $1 that’s already there.

                            Web MasterW 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                            • Web MasterW
                              Web Master @PeterJones
                              last edited by

                              @peterjones I figured that 1 FILE inside the paranetheses was a literal.

                              PeterJonesP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • PeterJonesP
                                PeterJones @Web Master
                                last edited by PeterJones

                                @web-master ,

                                I figured that 1 FILE inside the paranetheses was a literal.

                                The parentheses doesn’t make it literal. The parentheses makes it a group, so that it will capture the matched text inside the parentheses as a group, which you can then reference during the replacement to get back pieces of what was in your match. By taking the \d outside the parentheses, the digit wasn’t kept as part of the group, and thus wasn’t available to be inserted into the replacement.

                                • capture groups (see Numbered Capture Group in that section)
                                • replacement expressions (see $ℕ in that section)
                                Web MasterW 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • Web MasterW
                                  Web Master @PeterJones
                                  last edited by

                                  @peterjones Got it! Thank you

                                  This works beautifully. Is there a way to put this into a macro so that at runtime the user is prompted for the replacement string? That would be the cherry on top of the icing/frosting on top of the cake.

                                  No biggie if it’s too big an ask. I’m sure I can coach the user to do it properly

                                  Paul

                                  PeterJonesP Alan KilbornA 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • PeterJonesP
                                    PeterJones @Web Master
                                    last edited by

                                    @web-master ,

                                    The macro language used by Notepad++ has no concept of “prompt”, so the simple answer is “no”.

                                    “Or something”, OTOH: there is a PythonScript plugin, which allows you to write a script that is run inside of Notepad++ which can automate the Notepad++ GUI and editor contents, which could run that search/replace; but you’d have to install the plugin, and learn how to write such a script. It really depends on how much effort you want to go to now, to make it easier for your users to do this in the future. I think Alan’s posted at least one script in the past that pops up a user input box and asks for text, which then gets populated into a regex that is automatically run on the current file… searching the forum for posts by @Alan-Kilborn that contain prompt might get you there eventually (though you’ll probably have to wade through quite a few false hits as well… prompt isn’t that uncommon a word).

                                    Web MasterW 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • Web MasterW
                                      Web Master @PeterJones
                                      last edited by

                                      @peterjones Thanks. I’ll try coaching the user first. :)

                                      I am so impresssed with the speed and quality of response to my post. Thank you so much Alan and Peter

                                      Neil SchipperN 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                      • Neil SchipperN
                                        Neil Schipper @Web Master
                                        last edited by Neil Schipper

                                        @web-master Hi. Here’s a variation on Alan’s solution which has the feature that users enter the replacement text as is (so they won’t have to be so careful about entering text into a field containing cryptic regex codes) : (?<=^\d FILE /).*(?=/)

                                        (Edit: slightly simplified)

                                        Web MasterW 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                        • Web MasterW
                                          Web Master @Neil Schipper
                                          last edited by

                                          @neil-schipper said in Replacing variable length file paths in a GEDCOM file:

                                          (?<=^\d FILE /).*(?=/)

                                          Forgive me Neil, but I’m not clear how to use this modified example?

                                          Neil SchipperN 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • Neil SchipperN
                                            Neil Schipper @Web Master
                                            last edited by

                                            @web-master I could have been more clear.

                                            The idea is that you perform a Regex search in the same way as the earlier recipe, except the Find expression is the one I offered, and, the Replace expression is simply and completely the text you want to substitute in.

                                            Thus, instead of your people having to carefully modify the Replace expression from ${1}/Smith_1234/ to ${1}/Jones_4567/ as they proceed from one task to the next, they can more comfortably change Smith_1234 to Jones_4567 – no funny confusing text in the Replace text box.

                                            Also, if you want the solution to be robust against users inadvertently checking that option box to the right of Reg Exp, prefix the Find expression with (?-s) as per Alan’s earlier expression.

                                            Also, if you want to make it impossible to match a completely empty path (nothing between two slashes: //), in my Find expression, we’d replace * with +, hence: (?-s)(?<=^\d FILE /).+(?=/)

                                            Web MasterW Alan KilbornA 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
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