How to separate specific text with notepad?

yuly pmem

I need your help, I am trying to separate in a text of 200000 lines like this:

literature:18:trouble
history:10:medicine
algebra:09:nature

First I want to separate it like this:
literature:trouble
history:medicine
algebra:nature

And then to:

18:trouble
10:medicine
09:nature

Somebody help me

Terry R

@yuly-pmem
A question on what you want to achieve. From the example it would seem that once the text has been divided, you want all the first bits one after the other (line after line) in the file, then possibly a blank line followed by all the 2nd bits of each line, again one after the other (line after line). Is this correct?

Otherwise I wonder if you mean
literature:trouble
18:trouble
history:medicine
10:medicine

Both are possible with a regular expression (regex), one however is going to require more steps. I can see it maybe requiring 3 regex’s to achieve if the answer to my question is true.

Terry

yuly pmem

@Terry-R said:

Both are possible with a regular expression (regex), one however is going to require more steps. I can see it maybe requiring 3 regex’s to achieve if the answer to my question is true

Thanks for answering, friend I need to separate them, then I’ll copy them in two different files. they are not necessarily the same code

Terry R

So if separated, do you care if the “first bits” or the “second bits” remain in the sequence they started with. If not then that would make it very simple.

I’m thinking that the regex would add a number to the start of every second line (like 999999) and once all lines were divided, you’d sort the lines. That would put each of the groups in separate areas of the file.

Terry

yuly pmem

@yuly-pmem said:

18:trouble
10:medicine
09:nature

friend excuse me but I do not understand, there are some codes to separate them (regular expression):
Find-what box:
Replace-with box:
Search mode: ☑ Regular expression
I separate copy and paste in another file
First file
literature: trouble
history: medicine
algebra: nature
Second file
18: trouble
10: medicine
09: nature

Terry R

I understand that the second group of lines already have a number at the start but in order to actually separate them from the first group of lines a sort would be needed. That’s going to change the order.

So in effect you would have:
algebra:nature
history:medicine
literature:trouble

followed by the 2nd group which have the numbers at the start.

My idea is as follows:
the regex to transform 1 line into 2 lines is:
Find what: ^(?i)([a-z]+?)(:)(\d{2}):([a-z]+?)(\R)
replace with: \1\2\4\591919 \3\2\4\5

So this would create (using your example):
literature:trouble
91919 18:trouble
history:medicine
91919 10:medicine
algebra:nature
91919 09:nature

So now you would use the sort lines option, Edit, Line Operations, Sort lines lexicographically descending.

This produces:
literature:trouble
history:medicine
algebra:nature
91919 18:trouble
91919 10:medicine
91919 09:nature

Then another regex to remove the numbers.
Find what: ^91919\h
Replace with: empty field here

So you’d finish up with:
literature:trouble
history:medicine
algebra:nature
18:trouble
10:medicine
09:nature

As you can see it hasn’t affected the order of the numbered group, but it has changed the order of the first grouping.

Terry

Terry R

It is possible not to use the 91919 sequence, but as I wasn’t sure of the data typing I wanted something that was very unlikely to be elsewhere in your data to differentiate the 2nd part of each line as I made it.

Terry

Terry R

Actually reading through the examples I seemed to have overlooked the example staying the same order. I think that was only luck as we used a reverse sort and the first group were already in that mode.

If however the sort changed the order to, say
algebra
history
literature

does that concern you?

Terry

yuly pmem

friend I found a regex for the first group I managed to separate with (:. *? :), now I would only miss the second part, know some regular expression

literature:18:trouble
history:10:medicine
algebra:09:nature

to

18:trouble
10:medicine
09:nature

Terry R

What say I start again as I may have confused you with lots of options.

Try the following on your original file.
Find what: ^(?i)([a-z]+?)(:)(\d{2}):([a-z]+?)(\R)
replace with: \1\2\4\5\3\2\4\5

Once this is done you use the sort function to group the 2 different line types apart. So Edit, Line Operations, Sort lines lexicographically descending.

See what that produces for you. If you are happy then just copy the 2nd group elsewhere (another file).

If the result is NOT what you wanted let us know and maybe someone can give you a different regex to achieve it.

Terry

yuly pmem

thank you friend for attending, I work well but for the 5 lines, but for 2000 or n lines?

Terry R

You use search mode regular expression and hit the “Replace All” button. It should change the entire file. Have wrap around ticked as well.

Terry

yuly pmem

I have about 2000 lines and I have marked regular mode expression and “Replace All” button, but it does not work

Note: replace with: \ 1 \ 2 \ 4 \ 5 \ 3 \ 2 \ 4 \ 5, is it only for 5 lines?

Terry R

Possibly the remainder of the lines do not fit the regex. Are the numbers 3 digits or more, my regex will only select 2 digit numbers as that’s what your example showed.

Where it says d{2}, change the 2 to 3. If numbers exceed 3 digits then change 2 to 2,4. You may even need to increase further the 4 to say 8, depending on the range of numbers you have.
Terry

guy038

Hello, @yuly-pmem, @terry-r and All,

I didn’t fully read all the posts, yet, but, personally, I would use the following method :

Do 2 copies of your 200000-lines text
Open the first copy in N++
Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

SEARCH :\d+

REPLACE Leave EMPTY

Select the Regular expression search mode
Tick the Wrap around option
Click on the Replace All button

You should get the expected text :

literature:trouble
history:medicine
algebra:nature

Open the second copy, in N++

SEARCH (?-s)^.+?:(?=\d+)

REPLACE Leave EMPTY

This time, you should get the following text :

18:trouble
10:medicine
09:nature

Note that I use a look-ahead structure, (?=\d+), just in case your text contains other lines ( as, for instance, Section 1: or Example 2: ) with a : symbol, not followed with digits !

Best Regards

guy038

ani rodet

friends guy038 and Terry the R: \ d + is for digits range 0-9, but if the case were like that

freddy: letters@sout.com: darkkk12
how would the method to separate them, with the previous method does not work

yuly pmem

I dont know

Terry R

@yuly-pmem are you able to tell us how you got on with the supplied regex’s? Have you tried any and if so what were the results.

In order for us to help further we would need to know what you have tried, what didn’t work and also some more examples if a particular regex did NOT work as expected.

@guy038 had a good idea. By copying the data, so you have 2 copies, you can create the individual groups you want independently. That also means once you have altered the text, it will still be in the same order as it started with. My idea would possibly have changed the order and that may not be what you wanted.

Terry

yuly pmem

friend terry, if he works when there are numbers (literature: 18: trouble
history: 10: medicine), but in some lines there are only letters like this
history: text: ready
medicine: small: student
thanks anyway friend for wanting to help me.
I will continue looking for the solution
attentively yuli

Terry R

From your last example it would appear that your data can be described as:
string#1 then a : (colon) then string#2 then a : (colon) then string#3
And furthermore string#2 may be some digits.
And you would like it to be
string#1:string#3
and
string#2:string#3
If the : is the delimiter then it should be easy enough to provide you a regex to change the data.

First off, as @guy038 says, copy the entire file to another tab in Notepad++. So you should have 2 identical copies of the file (make sure the 2nd copy has a different file name as they need to be saved as different files).Add a blank line at the bottom of both files, so last line.

In the 1st tab use the following regex to alter the text
Find what: ^(.+?):.+?(:.+?\R)
Replace with: \1\2
search mode is “regular expression” and “wrap around” ticked.
Once this is run you can remove the last blank line and save this file.

In the 2nd tab (so this is the copy of the original file) use the regex:
Find what: ^.+?:(.+?:.+?\R)
Replace with : empty field here <— this means nothing in this field!
search mode is “regular expression” and “wrap around” ticked.
Once this is run you can remove the last blank line and save this file. Make sure this is a different file name, otherwise you will overwrite the results from the first regex.

I hope this helps. My solution does rest on my description being accurate. If it is not then you need to provide it similar to how I did.

Terry

PS as you have found out, your original example wasn’t good enough for us to help you properly. My description, had you included that at the start would have provided the extra information needed to supply you with a good solution.