Move Line Up

Barry Lort

Hello, my project manager wants me to move the “#DESCRIPTION” line above the “#SERVICE” line. Our master list contains several hundred entries. Can I highlight all “#DESCRIPTION” lines and move them above the “#SERVICE” line?

Thank you.

#SERVICE:4:8:1:6:0
#DESCRIPTION   Angus
#SERVICE:4:7:0:3:0:
#DESCRIPTION   Ayrshire 
#SERVICE:5:8:4:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Brown-Swiss
#SERVICE:3:6:7:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Galloway
#SERVICE:4:9:2:5:0
#DESCRIPTION   Guernsey
#SERVICE:6:4:7:8:0
#DESCRIPTION   Hereford 
#SERVICE:2:7:4:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Holstein
#SERVICE:6:4:2:9:0
#DESCRIPTION   Piedmontese 
#SERVICE:3:6:3:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Scottish-Highland
#SERVICE:4:4:9:3:0
#DESCRIPTION   Shorthorn

PeterJones

@Barry-Lort ,

FIND = (^#SERVICE.*)(\R)(^#DESCRIPTION.*)(\R?)
REPLACE = $3$2$1$2
SEARCH MODE = Regular Expression

This puts the #SERVICE line in memory slot 1, the newline in memory slot 2, the #DESCRIPTION in memory slot 3, and the second newline in slot 4. (But because files sometimes don’t end in a newline, I made it optional with the ?

The replacement uses slot 3, then 2, then 1, then 2 again, to swap the order of 1 and 3, and to make sure there’s always a newline, whether it was the last line of the file or not.

----

Useful References

Barry Lort

@PeterJones

Yes that works very well. Thank you so much. So the $ is a “backreference” in replacement strings when using regular expressions in the Find and Replace dialog?

Barry

Barry Lort

Ok I see the “Useful References” link under Regex Special Characters for Searches, that explains it pretty well.

Thanks again.

Barry

guy038

Hello, @barry-lort, @peterjones and All,

@barry-lort, here is an other method to solve your problem !

Let’s suppose that your file contains 100 lines, so 50 lines beginning with #SERVICE and 50 lines beginning with #DESCRIPTION, as below :

#SERVICE:4:8:1:6:0
#DESCRIPTION   Angus
#SERVICE:4:7:0:3:0:
#DESCRIPTION   Ayrshire 
#SERVICE:5:8:4:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Brown-Swiss
#SERVICE:3:6:7:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Galloway
#SERVICE:4:9:2:5:0
#DESCRIPTION   Guernsey
#SERVICE:6:4:7:8:0
#DESCRIPTION   Hereford 
#SERVICE:2:7:4:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Holstein
#SERVICE:6:4:2:9:0
#DESCRIPTION   Piedmontese 
#SERVICE:3:6:3:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Scottish-Highland
#SERVICE:4:4:9:3:0
#DESCRIPTION   Shorthorn
#SERVICE:4:8:1:6:0
#DESCRIPTION   Angus
#SERVICE:4:7:0:3:0:
#DESCRIPTION   Ayrshire 
#SERVICE:5:8:4:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Brown-Swiss
#SERVICE:3:6:7:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Galloway
#SERVICE:4:9:2:5:0
#DESCRIPTION   Guernsey
#SERVICE:6:4:7:8:0
#DESCRIPTION   Hereford 
#SERVICE:2:7:4:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Holstein
#SERVICE:6:4:2:9:0
#DESCRIPTION   Piedmontese 
#SERVICE:3:6:3:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Scottish-Highland
#SERVICE:4:4:9:3:0
#DESCRIPTION   Shorthorn
#SERVICE:4:8:1:6:0
#DESCRIPTION   Angus
#SERVICE:4:7:0:3:0:
#DESCRIPTION   Ayrshire 
#SERVICE:5:8:4:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Brown-Swiss
#SERVICE:3:6:7:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Galloway
#SERVICE:4:9:2:5:0
#DESCRIPTION   Guernsey
#SERVICE:6:4:7:8:0
#DESCRIPTION   Hereford 
#SERVICE:2:7:4:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Holstein
#SERVICE:6:4:2:9:0
#DESCRIPTION   Piedmontese 
#SERVICE:3:6:3:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Scottish-Highland
#SERVICE:4:4:9:3:0
#DESCRIPTION   Shorthorn
#SERVICE:4:8:1:6:0
#DESCRIPTION   Angus
#SERVICE:4:7:0:3:0:
#DESCRIPTION   Ayrshire 
#SERVICE:5:8:4:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Brown-Swiss
#SERVICE:3:6:7:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Galloway
#SERVICE:4:9:2:5:0
#DESCRIPTION   Guernsey
#SERVICE:6:4:7:8:0
#DESCRIPTION   Hereford 
#SERVICE:2:7:4:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Holstein
#SERVICE:6:4:2:9:0
#DESCRIPTION   Piedmontese 
#SERVICE:3:6:3:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Scottish-Highland
#SERVICE:4:4:9:3:0
#DESCRIPTION   Shorthorn
#SERVICE:4:8:1:6:0
#DESCRIPTION   Angus
#SERVICE:4:7:0:3:0:
#DESCRIPTION   Ayrshire 
#SERVICE:5:8:4:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Brown-Swiss
#SERVICE:3:6:7:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Galloway
#SERVICE:4:9:2:5:0
#DESCRIPTION   Guernsey
#SERVICE:6:4:7:8:0
#DESCRIPTION   Hereford 
#SERVICE:2:7:4:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Holstein
#SERVICE:6:4:2:9:0
#DESCRIPTION   Piedmontese 
#SERVICE:3:6:3:1:0
#DESCRIPTION   Scottish-Highland
#SERVICE:4:4:9:3:0
#DESCRIPTION   Shorthorn

Now, just follow this road map :

Select any string #SERVICE
Run the Edit > Multi-select All > Match Case Only option

=> All strings #SERVICE should have been selected

Use the Shift + End shortcut to extend the selection to the end of each line
Use the Ctrl + X shortcut to delete these lines and place them in the clipboard
Hit two times on the Down arrow key

=> Each cursor/caret should had been moved two lines under

Use the Ctrl + V shortcut to recopy all #SERVICE lines to their new location
Finally, hit the ESC key to clear the current multi-selection

Voila !

Best Regards,

guy038

P.S. :

We could use the multi-selection of all #DESCRIPTION lines, either ! But, in that case, you need to :

Add an empty line at the very beginning of your file
Hit two times on the Up arrow key, right before the pasting operation

P.P.S. :

A similar regex S/R could be :

FIND (?-s)^(.+\R)(.+(\R)?)

REPLACE $2(?3:\r\n)$1

Note that the conditional replacement (?3:\r\n) manages the case where your last #DESCRIPTION line would not end with a line-break !