Regex Find & Replace after Specific Text

Chase Rankin

Basically. I have a bunch of text files that someone incorrectly plugged a value into roughly 650 files. The + was supposed to be a - and vice versa. I am doing my best to come up with a way to mass edit these. There is alot more information in these documents other wise I would just find and replace the +/- as needed.

The closest I got: /^.*Pattern:.*(?:\+|-)$

This is roughly what the files look like.

//extra crap
//c:/imessedup/i-don't-know
//HHLAU_MD01_HIGHFIVES

//*****INFORMATION ABOUT MODULATION***


Pattern:            +-+++---++--++--+++

--
moderator added code tags to make it readable

PeterJones

@Chase-Rankin ,

Going to the Generic Regex formula FAQ, and going to the Replacing in a specific zone, I went to the simplified formula for a single-line zone:

I then translated that into a three-regular-expression sequence.

Pluses to smilies:
SEARCH (?-s)(?-i:^Pattern\:|(?!\A)\G).*?\K(?-i:\+)
REPLACE ☺
Minuses to pluses:
SEARCH (?-s)(?-i:^Pattern\:|(?!\A)\G).*?\K(?-i:\-)
REPLACE +
Smilies to minuses:
SEARCH (?-s)(?-i:^Pattern\:|(?!\A)\G).*?\K(?-i:☺)
REPLACE -

(Mode = regular expression for all)

This will only do replacements on lines that start with Pattern:
If you actually have spaces or tabs before Pattern, then change the middle portion to ^\h*Pattern\:

Chase Rankin

@PeterJones First off, thank you for taking the time to respond. I’m looking at this in regex101 and it seems to work there but when I took it to Notepad++(transcribed to stand-alone system) it isn’t working. I’ve quintuple checked character for character. I am using a version of Notepad++ from 2018 though. Also, have tried this with . matches newline and without

PeterJones

@Chase-Rankin ,

It worked just fine for me.

But something I didn’t emphasize in my post, even though it was mentioned in the “Replacing in a specific zone” documentation, you must use Replace All: if there is a \K in the Find what: regex, you have to use Replace All.

The .-matches-newline is irrelevant, because the expression has (?-s) which overrides that checkbox.

Chase Rankin

@PeterJones I’m going to download the newest version and try it again. Also will copy over your text verbatim so I don’t mess anything up.

PeterJones

@Chase-Rankin ,

Ah, yes, v7.9.1 fixed a bug in \A, which may have been making the regex not work right. I tried in v7.7.1, and it only replaced the first plus with the smiley, whereas in v7.9.5 (soon after the fix), it worked as I originally described.

This requirement was actually noted in the IMPORTANT notes in the “Replacing in a region” FAQ

Chase Rankin

@PeterJones Ok. I messed up when I told you Pattern:. It was actually all caps. Now that is corrected but when I click replace all it is only going one character at a time.

PeterJones

@Chase-Rankin said in Regex Find & Replace after Specific Text:

Now that is corrected but when I click replace all it is only going one character at a time.

That happens if you are on a version before v7.9.1, because of the bug in \A. For this expression to work, you need to be on v7.9.1 or newer.

Chase Rankin

@PeterJones Thanks so much for all the help. I got it done with the old version by just force clicking through it all. Pressing my IT dept to install the newest version. Thanks again!