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