Split string with quotes to new line

JajinderK

Hi there.

I have a line in a text-file that containes 1 line with 100’s of keywords between quotes. Each keyword(s) between quotes need to be split to a new line.

Textfile:

"This" "is" "a list" "or" "a string of" "words" "in one" "line" "that" "I" "want to" "split." "Everything" "between the" "quotes" "should be" "on a new" "line" "including the quotes"

Output should become:

"This" 
"is" 
"a list" 
"or" 
"a string of" 
"words" 
"in one" 
"line" 
etc...

I have tried some RegEx, but I’m a fullblown noob. It is probably cause my way of thinking and not to mention that I don’t understand/how to read 99% of the “commands”. (current state of short-term-memory also not helping at all)

How would you tackle this? If you have a solution in RegEx can you please type your way of thinking to solve this? I might be asking for much, but I really want to understand.
Thanks for the help in advance.

guy038

Hello, @jajinderk and All,

Very easy to achieve !

Open your file in Notepad++
Select your long line of words with double-quote delimiters
Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )
As the Find what : zone is selected with previous contents, replace it with the " " string ( or the "\x20" string )
Fill in the Replace with : zone with "\r\n" ( or "\n" if you deal with UNIX files )

Note that you must insert the " chars in the Find what : and Replace with : fields

Untick all the box options, on the left side of the dialog
Select the Regular expression search mode
Click once only on the Replace All option ( Do not use the Replace button )

So, from your INPUT text :

"This" "is" "a list" "or" "a string of" "words" "in one" "line" "that" "I" "want to" "split." "Everything" "between the" "quotes" "should be" "on a new" "line" "including the quotes"

You should get, immediately, this OUTPUT text :

"This"
"is"
"a list"
"or"
"a string of"
"words"
"in one"
"line"
"that"
"I"
"want to"
"split."
"Everything"
"between the"
"quotes"
"should be"
"on a new"
"line"

Best Regards,

guy038

JajinderK

OMG! I’m overcomplicating thigs too much. Thank you soo much. I’ve been trying things for litterly hours and the solution was so simple…

1000-thanks.

mkupper

@JajinderK There is one more item to add to what @guy038 wrote which is to make sure that “In selection” is enabled. “In selection” causes the search/replace to only happen within the selected area when you use the “Replace All” button.

If the selection is more than 1024 characters then “In selection” gets turned on automatically. The example you had posted with "This" "is" "a list" ... "including the quotes" the selection is 182 characters long meaning that “In selection” does not get turned on automatically and “Replace All” will do the the replacement on the entire file from that point on down or the entire file if “wrap around” is enabled.

The odds are you likely were okay as it’s rare to see a quoted single space such as " " in a document.

guy038

Hi, @jajinderk, @mkupper and All,

@mkupper, it happened that, when I did the tests of my regex S/R, the In selection option was already ticked for some reason !

But you’re right about it ! After additional tests, I suppose that the road map shiould be :

Open your file in Notepad++

Select your long line of words with double-quote delimiters

Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

As the Find what : zone is selected with previous contents, replace it with the " " string ( or the "\x20" string )

Fill in the Replace with : zone with "\r\n" ( or "\n" if you deal with UNIX files )

Note that you must insert the " chars in the Find what : and Replace with : fields

Tick, if necessary, the In selection option, on the right side of the dialog

Untick all the box options, on the left side of the dialog

Select the Regular expression search mode

Click once only on the Replace All option ( Do not use the Replace button )

Luckily, as you said, a single space char, between two double-quotes, does occur very rarely !

BR

guy038

JajinderK

@guy038 @mkupper Thank you both for the additional information.