RegEx assistance for adding a space before an Upper case letter

Brenda Gross 0

I have hundreds of table column names that contain no embedded spaces. Some of the column names use an _ to separate words, some use camel case, some use a mixture. Replacing the _ with a space is easy. But how to add a space prior to any upper case character that is not the first character and is not already preceded by a space? Each column name will be on a separate line. Thanks for any help

Example:
Average_Balance
SystemRate_Change
DateClosed

Desired Results:
Average Balance
System Rate Change
Date Closed

guy038

Hello, @brenda-gross-0 and All,

Very easy with regexes !

Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )
Un-tick all box options
FIND (?-i)(?<=\l)(?=\u)|_
REPLACE \x20
Tick the Wrap around option
Select the Regular expression search mode
Click, once only, on the Replace All button

Voila !

Notes :

The leading part (?-i) is an in-line modifier which force to take care about the case of letters, meaning non-insensitive search !
Then, due to the alternation symbol |, two individual regexes are performed, simultaneously :
- (?<=\l)(?=\u) which searches for an empty string between a lower-case letter and an upper-case letter
- _ which simply searches for the underline character
In both cases, the replacement changes the regex search with an normal space character \x20. I could have chosen to type a single space char, instead !
The regex search may also be expressed as a non-capturing group : (?-i:(?<=\l)(?=\u)|_), with the leading non-insensitive option

Best Regards,

guy038