How to break lines at a specific character in Notepad++?

Question

I have a text file containing text like:

['22APR2012 23:10', '23APR2012 07:10', 1, 3, 0], ['22APR2012 23:10', '23APR2012 07:20', 1, 3, 0], ['22APR2012 23:15', '23APR2012 06:40', 0, 1, 0], ['22APR2012 
23:15', '23APR2012 06:40', 1, 3, 0], ['22APR2012 23:15', '23APR2012 06:40', 0, 1, 0], ['22APR2012 23:15', '23APR2012 07:00', 1, 3, 0], ['22APR2012 23:15', '23APR2012 
07:00', 0, 1, 0], ['22APR2012 23:20', '23APR2012 09:35', 0, 1, 0], ['22APR2012 23:20', '23APR2012 09:35', 1, 3, 0], ['22APR2012 23:20', '23APR2012 10:10', 1, 3, 0], 
['22APR2012 23:25', '23APR2012 05:35', 1, 3, 0],

I want the lines break at ], characters:

['22APR2012 19:30', '23APR2012 00:25', 0, 1, 0], 
['22APR2012 19:35', '23APR2012 01:45', 1, 3, 0],
['22APR2012 19:50', '23APR2012 05:25', 1, 3, 0],
['22APR2012 19:50', '23APR2012 05:25', 0, 1, 0],
['22APR2012 19:55', '23APR2012 06:25', 1, 3, 0],

Is there a way to do it in Notepad++, or any other editor?

duplicate of Super user question:http://superuser.com/questions/34451/notepad-find-and-replace-string-with-a-new-line — xQbert, May 19 '12 at 19:14
Can you tell me how to do this if I want to break it by `;`? The solutions for `]` aren't working for me — CodyBugstein, Apr 15 '13 at 02:18

score 192 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 12 '15 at 13:58

192

Click Ctrl + h or Search -> Replace on the top menu
Under the Search Mode group, select Regular expression
In the Find what text field, type ],\s*
In the Replace with text field, type ],\n
Click Replace All

edited Oct 12 '15 at 13:58

Scott Decker

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answered May 19 '12 at 19:13

creemama

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To get this to work in Notepad++ version 6.7.8.2 I had to use the Extended Search mode, instead of Regular expression. – AJefferiss Jun 16 '15 at 12:48
5

I also had to use Extended, however for a single line break `\n` was only necessary. – jarmerson Aug 10 '16 at 18:16

Malik Khalil · Answer 2 · 2018-04-26T08:58:31.550

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Let's assume ], is the character where we wanted to break at

Open notePad++
Open Find window Ctrl+F
Switch to Replace Tab
Choose Search Mode to Extended
Type ], in Find What field
Type \nin Replace with field
Hit Replace All
Boom

edited Apr 26 '18 at 08:58

answered Dec 11 '16 at 10:01

Malik Khalil

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6. Type `\r\n` in `Replace with` field – Bob Stein Oct 27 '18 at 17:41
To be viewed in Windows (i.e. Notepad) we need \r\n. Otherwise \n works on on any other platform (should break the line and continue below it). – Salvador Valencia Dec 13 '19 at 23:01

Sasikumar Murugesan · Answer 3 · 2018-03-15T08:57:29.493

12

Try this way. It got worked for me

Open Notepad++ then copy your content
Press ctrl + h
Find what is should be ,(comma) or any character that you want to replace
Replace with should be \n
Select Search Mode -> Extended (\n, \r, \t, \0)
Then Click on Replace All

edited Mar 15 '18 at 08:57

answered Mar 15 '18 at 07:07

Sasikumar Murugesan

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Extended did the trick for me ,thanks. – Jamie Nicholl-Shelley Feb 26 '21 at 11:50

score 9 · Answer 4 · answered May 02 '13 at 10:19

9

If the text contains \r\n that need to be converted into new lines use the 'Extended' or 'Regular expression' modes and escape the backslash character in 'Find what':

Find what: \\r\\n

Replace with: \r\n

answered May 02 '13 at 10:19

a_vas

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score 2 · Answer 5 · answered May 19 '12 at 19:12

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I have no idea how it can work automatically, but you can copy "], " together with new line and then use replace function.

answered May 19 '12 at 19:12

mjastrzebowski

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score 2 · Answer 6 · edited Sep 08 '13 at 14:20

If you are looking to get a comma separated string into a column with CR LF you wont be able to do that in Notepad++, assuming you didn't want to write code, you could manipulate it in Microsoft Excel.

If you copy your string to location B1:

A2 =LEFT(B1,FIND(",",B1)-1)
B2 =MID(B1,FIND(",",B1)+1,10000)

Select A2 and B2, copy the code to successive cells (by dragging):

A3 =LEFT(B2,FIND(",",B2)-1)
B3 =MID(B2,FIND(",",B2)+1,10000)

When you get #VALUE! in the last cell of column A replace it with the previous rows B value.

In the end your A column will contain the desired text. Copy and past it anywhere you wish.

"you wont be able to do that in Notepad++" - that is not true. Use reg exp as creemama exmplained above. It works perfectly. — mentallurg, Jan 26 '14 at 13:27

How to break lines at a specific character in Notepad++?

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