How to Stop Editor Replace (Python Script) from Inserting New Lines?

Mayonnaisu

Hello everyone, it’s me again!
How do I find and replace using this script without inserting new lines or retain the original format?
The Script:

with open("C:\Users\Mayonnaisu\Desktop\New folder\Test.txt") as f:
    for l in h:
        s = l.split("*")
        editor.replace(s[0], s[1])

Test.txt

let's*why
see*the
it*how

The File:

let's see it
see

The Output:

why
 the
 how
the

The Desired One:

why the how
the

Could anyone help me?
Thanks in advance!

Alan Kilborn

@Mayonnaisu

A line by definition (at least my definition) always has a line-ending character(s) included. Thus, when you get a line (l) from your file with for l in h: (which, where did h come from as your file object is f??), your l variable will, for the first line, contain:

let's*why\r\n

So from there it is easy to see why you get extra lines in your output, isn’t it? Your s[0] will be let's and s[1] will be why\r\n. This assumes the typical Windows line-ending of \r\n (carriage return + line feed).

The way I do such a section of code is:

with open('test.txt') as f:
    for line in f:
        line = line.rstrip()         # <-- the key change from how OP is doing it!
        # ...

The .rstrip() removes whitespace from the end of the line string. If you want to be really “safe” and only remove line-ending characters, change it to .rstrip('\n\r'). (Whitespace is defined as more than line-ending characters).

BTW, this is really a Python question, not a PythonScript question.

Mayonnaisu

@Alan-Kilborn
So that’s how it is. At first I tried to add .strip("\n") after l.split("*"), but that caused the script to stop at the first replacement or stopped working altogether (I forget which one because I tried some things). I did it wrongly after all.
Now that I think about it why would I write “h” as the object lol. Then again, unlike in Python IDLE, I was not given any error warning for such a mistake. Anyway, thanks a lot!

Alan Kilborn

@Mayonnaisu said in How to Stop Editor Replace (Python Script) from Inserting New Lines?:

I was not given any error warning for such a mistake.

So perhaps you had it defined as h while you were developing your script. You did a few runs… h got redefined a few times. Then you changed it and got rid of h as you are debugging. The reason it might not flag a subsequent run with an error, is that h is still defined, from a previous run! You could get your script finalized (so you think), and it tests perfectly. Then you shut Notepad++ down, sleep, and restart N++ the next day, and use your script, to get an error like this one:

This is a “problem” with script commands run with global scope. Variables from earlier runs can be used in new runs. Either don’t execute script commands so that they set variables in the global namespace (use def main(): and main()…) or, before deciding you are finished with a script, exit N++, restart N++, and test your script again.

Mayonnaisu

@Alan-Kilborn
Oh, you’re right! Thanks again!