Thanks. I will explore this option.

Well I jumped the gun.

I had to restore from backups to 6.7.1 to get the comments to work and have the styles I have configured to be correct.

There exists “Notepad++ Favorites” plugin - https://github.com/heldersepu/nppfavorites

put the NppFavorites.dll into installation folder to manually install.

@jeronymite2 said:

couldn’t find shortcuts.xml

Probably you are using the “installed” version of Notepad++ (as opposed to the “portable” version). In the installed version, if you click the Windows Start menu and type %APPDATA% in the “Search programs and files” box (and then press Enter), an Explorer window will open where you should see a Notepad++ folder–inside that folder should be your configuration xml files, including shortcuts.xml.

Note: In the “portable” version, the xml configuration files are in the same folder as the notepad++.exe file.

You can select the color using the HTML page
https://pastebin.com/3Csbu1ZW
Open in your browser

Hi, @kusalux, and All,

Yeah ! it’s always the same story ! Everyone which codes, or even builds a regex, before writing the first line, should ask himself, about all aspects of the program or the regex to create ;-))

Regarding your analyse about fair dates or wrong ones, an other guy could have a totally different approach about what it’s right or not ! Theoretically, in your case, you should recapitulate all possible valid dates and all possible valid formats of date that you consider as right ones ! I do understand that this is, generally, not an easy task !

For instance, you said that the syntax 10.11.12. should be taken as valid. But, now, the syntax 10.11.12.13 looks rather like an IP address ! And if your last example it.10.11.12 is supposed correct, too, then a date, embedded in text, like , for instance, abc.27.06.12.def should be a valid format of date !

Of course, when building the regexes, in my previous post, I just imagined them, according to my way of considering correct formats of date and how the should be located among all surrounding text ! Now, let’s imagine that you previously thought and defined the list of all valid formats of date ( for YOU ! ) then, half work would be already done and, to get the right regex should be easier to achieve :-))

In addition, you may have a different look to the date problem, later, working on different files ! Indeed, regexes strongly depends on the current file contents, which could end to very different regexes for similar kinds of search ! And, honestly, when a regex seems too specific or complicated, and can be used in very few cases, only, I rather think that it’s not a useful regex, anyway :-))

If you do need information on regexes, I could help you, but I’m sure than you can cope with these strange things ( the regexes ) by yourself :-))

Cheers,

guy038

P.S. :

Above all, I forgot to point out, that a script or a programming language is a better way to verify dates than regexes, anyway !

I just asked to correct the error in the help

AFAIK you just indicated there is an error on the linked page, you didn’t ask for a correction :-)
Furthermore, there is no error on the page.

If there is a difference in behavior, this should be indicated in the description, so that everyone does not ask the same question again.

Agreed, although keep in mind that the difference wasn’t known of by many (AFAIK, well at least not by me) until @guy038 posted his topic.

@Cem-Kaval

In the time since the original posting I have changed how I do this function. I no longer use an AutoIt script. But here’s how I would set it up again if I were doing it:

Create (and test) the functionality as a Run menu entry. For example, this might be something you would put in the The Program to Run box: "C:\Program Files (x86)\AutoIt3\AutoIt3_x64.exe" "c:\example_script.au3".

Execute this command to see that it actually works! (rather important before proceeding)

Save this new Run menu command with a name, e.g. AutoIt3 TEST

After it is tested and is working via the Run menu, then you can make a right-click context menu entry out of it. Edit the contextMenu.xml file and where you feel it is appropriate add a new line like this::

<Item MenuEntryName = "Run" MenuItemName = "AutoIt3 TEST" />

After restarting Notepad++, if all has gone well, you should see your new entry when you right click in a document tab window.

Hello, gehe-online,

The crypto writing of regexes, as you say, are not that difficult. Just an other language, as thousand other ones !

Regarding the regex, in your functionList.xml file, below :

mainExpr=" (?x) # free-spacing (see `RegEx - Pattern Modifiers`) (?ms) # - ^, $ and dot match at line-breaks ^\h* # optional leading white-space at start-of-line (?:beginsub\s+)? name\s*=\s* \K # discard text matched so far [\w.^+-]+ "

Here are some non exhaustive explanations, on this regex :

First, the (?x) modifier tell the regex engine that the free-spacing mode is ON So, any non-escaped space character, as well as comments, beginning with the # symbol, will be ignored

Then, the (?ms) modifiers, which could be rewritten (?m)(?s), means that :

The ^ and $ assertions represent, respectively, any start and end of line ( (?m) )

The dot . special character matches any single character, even an End of line one, like \r and \n ( (?s) )

Now, the part ^\h* represents any sequence, even empty, of horizontal blank characters, at start of line ( note that * is a shortcut for the {0,} quantifier, meaning present 0 or any time )

Afterwards, the (?:beginsub\s+)? searches for the beginsub key-word, in any case, followed by, at least, one blank character, as the + quantifer is a shortcut of the {1,} one.

As that range is enclosed in a non-capturing group (?.....), followed with the ? quantifier ( which is a shortcut of {0,1} ) this implies that the part beginsub\s+ may be present or not

Then, the name\s*=\s* part tries to catch the name key-word, followed by optional blanks chars, then the = sign, and followed, again, with optional blanks chars

Now, The \K syntax, tell the regex engine to forget anything matched, so far ! Note that the previous match was mandatory to get an overall match but, now, the regex engine just has to consider the remaining of the regex

Thus, the final part, to match, is the regex [\w.^+-]+ which represents a character class feature, that is to say, a single character, enclosed in the [....] structure, which must be present, at least, one time ( remember, + == {1,} quantifier )

To end with, any single character, which composes the name, of each key-word NAME, can be, either :

A word character ( \w ), that is to say, a classical letter, an accentuated letter, a digit or the _ symbol

A circumflex accent ( ^ )

A dot punctuation sign ( . )

A plus mathematical sign ( + )

A minus mathematical sign ( - )

Remark : for further information on Unicode Blank characters, refer, also, to the link, below :

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/topic/15279/unicode-blank-characters-and-the-regexes-h-v-and-s/1

gehe online, I hope that, now, you can figure out the general template of a regular expression !

Best Regards,

guy038

P.S. :

For noob people, about regular expressions concept and syntax, begin with that article, in N++ Wiki :

http://docs.notepad-plus-plus.org/index.php/Regular_Expressions

In addition, you’ll find good documentation, about the Boost C++ Regex library, v1.55.0 ( similar to the PERL Regular Common Expressions, v5.8 ), used by Notepad++, since its 6.0 version, at the TWO addresses below :

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_55_0/libs/regex/doc/html/boost_regex/syntax/perl_syntax.html

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_55_0/libs/regex/doc/html/boost_regex/format/boost_format_syntax.html

The FIRST link explains the syntax, of regular expressions, in the SEARCH part

The SECOND link explains the syntax, of regular expressions, in the REPLACEMENT part

You may, also, look for valuable information, on the sites, below :

http://www.regular-expressions.info

http://www.rexegg.com

http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html

Be aware that, as any documentation, it may contain some errors ! Anyway, if you detected one, that’s good news : you’re improving ;-))