Delete entries and unknown amount of brackets

[Felix L]

Fellow Notepad++ Users,

Could you please help me with the following search-and-replace problem I am having?

I have a file with thousands of entries that always have the same structure: an unknown amount of square brackets with changing content followed by a string that doesn’t have any square brackets.

How do I delete entries with the string “asd” and all their square brackets above? (as shown in the example)

Additional (hopefully helpful) information:

• There are no nested brackets.
• There always is exactly one empty line between the last right parenthesis of an entry and its “free” string, and also exactly one empty line between two entries.
• The last character of an entry always is a 0, 1 or 2.

Here is the data I currently have (“before” data):

[some text]
[some text]

xyz2

[some text]
[some text]
[some text]
[some text]

asd1

[some text]
[some text]
[some text]

qwe0

Here is how I would like that data to look (“after” data):

[some text]
[some text]

xyz2

[some text]
[some text]
[some text]

qwe0

To accomplish this, I have tried using the following Find/Replace expressions and settings

Find What = ]\r\n\r\nasd([0-2]{1})\r\n
Replace With = nothing
Search Mode = REGULAR EXPRESSION
Dot Matches Newline = NOT CHECKED

Unfortunately, I’m not sure how to account for the unnkown amount of brackets in my search. Could you please help me find the solution?

Thank you.

[Alan Kilborn]

@Felix-L

Maybe try a Find what of: (?-s)^\R(?:\\[.+\\]\R)+\Rasd[0-2]\R

[Felix L]

@Alan-Kilborn You’re just awesome dude, thank you very much. Works like a charm.