Copy all text that are exactly 4 lines before a search result.

[David L]

Hello. I’m trying to come up with a regular expression that could select what is inside "

<text>123</text>

when after we have

<fill>
        <color value="255,255,255"/>
</fill>

Also, I’d like the expression copy what is inside

<text name="title">Find and copy me</text>

Here are some example. Note that the color value is always 4 lines after the <text>

A big thank you for your help :)

<draw name="id" w="6.35mm" h="4.233mm" y="1.058mm" x="160.867mm">
                  <ui>
                     <textEdit>
                        <margin/>
                     </textEdit>
                  </ui>
                  <value>
                     <text>400</text>
                  </value>
                  <font size="8pt" typeface="Helvetica" baselineShift="0pt" weight="bold">
                     <fill>
                        <color value="255,255,255"/>
                     </fill>
                  </font>
                  <margin topInset="0mm" bottomInset="0mm" leftInset="0mm" rightInset="0mm"/>
                  <para vAlign="middle" spaceAbove="2.5pt" spaceBelow="0pt" textIndent="0pt" marginLeft="0pt" marginRight="0pt" hAlign="center" lineHeight="9pt"/>
                  <border>
                     <edge presence="hidden"/>
                     <corner presence="hidden" thickness="0.1764mm"/>
                     <fill>
                        <color value="0,0,0"/>
                     </fill>
                  </border>
                  <desc>
                     <text name="ObjectVersion">Release 6.0 - October 17, 2014</text>
                     <text name="ObjectName">LineNumber_FillBlack_White100</text>
                  </desc>
                  <traversal>
                     <traverse ref="form1[0].Page5[0].P10[0].Ln400[0].lbl[0]"/>
                  </traversal>
               </draw>



 <text name="title">Find and copy me</text>

[guy038]

Hello, @david-l and All,

If I fully understood what you said :

Given your INPUT text, below :

<draw name="id" w="6.35mm" h="4.233mm" y="1.058mm" x="160.867mm">
                  <ui>
                     <textEdit>
                        <margin/>
                     </textEdit>
                  </ui>
                  <value>
                     <text>400</text>
                  </value>
                  <font size="8pt" typeface="Helvetica" baselineShift="0pt" weight="bold">
                     <fill>
                        <color value="255,255,255"/>
                     </fill>
                  </font>
                  <margin topInset="0mm" bottomInset="0mm" leftInset="0mm" rightInset="0mm"/>
                  <para vAlign="middle" spaceAbove="2.5pt" spaceBelow="0pt" textIndent="0pt" marginLeft="0pt" marginRight="0pt" hAlign="center" lineHeight="9pt"/>
                  <border>
                     <edge presence="hidden"/>
                     <corner presence="hidden" thickness="0.1764mm"/>
                     <fill>
                        <color value="0,0,0"/>
                     </fill>
                  </border>
                  <desc>
                     <text name="ObjectVersion">Release 6.0 - October 17, 2014</text>
                     <text name="ObjectName">LineNumber_FillBlack_White100</text>
                  </desc>
                  <traversal>
                     <traverse ref="form1[0].Page5[0].P10[0].Ln400[0].lbl[0]"/>
                  </traversal>
               </draw>

<text name="title">Find and copy me</text>

• Open the Mark dialog

• Uncheck all box options

• MARK <text name=.+>\K.+(?=</text>)|(?<=<text>).+(?=</text>\R(?:.+\R){3}\h*<color)

• Check the two options Purge for each search and Wrap around

• Select the Regular expression search mode

• Click on the Mark All button

• Click on the Copy Marked Text button

• Open a new tab

• Paste the clipboard contents ( Ctrl + V )

Voila !

However, I almost certain that it’s not exactly what you want to :-)

Best Regards,

guy038

[David L]

@guy038

Hello. Thank you for your help and your time.

I probably didn’t explain well ;)

the code is from a .xfa forms. There is a lot of content inside but I would like to extract only the information that are inside black boxes.

So, my idea was to search for all code that make a box black

                     <fill>
                        <color value="255,255,255"/>
                     </fill>

and from here, copy the value written in this box (that is 4 lines above in the code). Here, 400

                      <value>
                        <text>400</text>
                      </value>

This expression partially work. The problem is that it select the 4 lines above my color value, not only the 400
(?-is)^(.\R){4}(?=.<color value=“255,255,255”/>)

again, thank you for your help :)

[Mark Olson]

Have you considered using an XML parser?

[David L]

@Mark-Olson @guy038

the message on your link is not encouraging :)

I fount the solution

I used this:
(?-is)^(.\R){4}(?=.<color value=“255,255,255”/>)
then another one on the result of the first to keep only what is between <text> and </text>

All run on a macro. It’s doing the job.

Thx again :)

[guy038]

Hi, @david-l, @mark-olson and All,

@david-l, I do not understand !

The second part of my regex, AFTER the alternation symbol ( | ) was :

SEARCH (?<=<text>).+(?=</text>\R(?:.+\R){3}\h*<color)

That I, now, improved as :

SEARCH (?-is)(?<=<text>).+(?=</text>\R(?:.+\R){3}\h*<color value="255,255,255"/>)

and these both regexes just match the string 400, against the INPUT text below, not more :

                  <value>
                     <text>400</text>
                  </value>
                  <font size="8pt" typeface="Helvetica" baselineShift="0pt" weight="bold">
                     <fill>
                        <color value="255,255,255"/>
                     </fill>

So what ?

---

Now, @david-l, in your first post, you said :

Also, I’d like the expression copy what is inside

<text name=“title”>Find and copy me</text>

This was considered in the first part of my regex :

SEARCH / MARK <text name=.+>\K.+(?=</text>) which does find the string Find and copy me only, against the INPUT text, below :

<text name="title">Find and copy me</text>

---

Now, may be it’s because i’m not fluent with the HYML language but, in your second post, you said :

So, my idea was to search for all code that make a box black

                <fill>
                   <color value="255,255,255"/>
                </fill>

And, obviously, the color referenced is the white color ! So what ?

---

Sorry, I’m a bit lost !!

BR

guy038