How do I replace characters enclosed inside of two brackets in Notepad++?

Question

In Notepad++, how can I replace a certain character (.) that is enclosed within two brackets [] throughout a large file?

Explanation

I have a very long code dump file (of PeopleCode) in Notepad++. At the top of each section of code, there is a tag like this:

[G3FORM.FormFactory.OnExecute]

This denotes a class package, and a class. In addition, this can be multiple layers deep:

[Y_REST.RESTQueries.ExampleClass.OnExecute]

Whenever a class is declared in the code, it doesn't use .'s. It uses :'s. E.g.:

import G3FORM:Form;

So, when I want to search for that class in the code dump, I have to change all of the .'s into :. I can do that, but it's somewhat annoying.

Example

I would like some help with Notepad++'s regex search feature for find and replace. I need to replace all of the .'s contained within these headers with :'s. E.g.:

[Y_REST.RESTQueries.ExampleClass.OnExecute]

would become

[Y_REST:RESTQueries:ExampleClass.OnExecute]

All but the last colon are replaced (and even then, if that makes it overly complicated, the last . can also be replaced).

Failed Attempts

I have been playing around with some regex to try and get this, but I am not familiar enough with it.

This doesn't work at all:

(([A-Z])\.)+

This also doesn't find anything:

\[(([A-Z])\.)+\]

I'm probably way off base. I haven't used regex enough to be familiar enough to know how to use the find and replace with regex.

You can use `(?:\[[^\]\[.]*|(?!^)\G)[^\]\[.]*\K\.(?![^\]\[.]*\])(?=[^\]\[]*\])`, to replace with a `:`. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Jul 21 '16 at 20:27
Well, one character class is redundant: `(?:\[|(?!^)\G)[^\]\[.]*\K\.(?![^\]\[.]*\])(?=[^\]\[]*\])` — Wiktor Stribiżew, Jul 21 '16 at 20:33

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 21 '16 at 20:24

0

Do a regular expression find/replace like this:

Open Replace Dialog
Find What: (\[[^\].]+)\.([^\]]+\])
Replace With: \1:\2
check regular expression
click Replace or Replace All
Keep Alt-A (Replace All) pressed until the message in find dialogs status bar tells you "0 occurences were replaced"

answered Jul 21 '16 at 20:24

Lars Fischer

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What does the `\1:\2` do? – Cache Staheli Jul 21 '16 at 20:25
Also, doesn't seem to catch multiple `.`'s as in the case of `[Y_DCE_FUNCLIB:DCE_Email.BATCH_EMAIL_MANAGERS.EFYFilterRejectedBatchEmail.OnExecute]` – Cache Staheli Jul 21 '16 at 20:31
@CacheStaheli *ReplaceAll* replaces *one* "." in *all* lines. Thus you have to keep Alt-A pressed to replace until all replacements are done. For a basic introduction to Regular expression, please refer to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22937618/reference-what-does-this-regex-mean/22944075#22944075 . The `\1` and `\2` are backreferences that are filled from the *Find What *part with the actual text matched by the first and second parentheses. pair. – Lars Fischer Jul 22 '16 at 13:53

score 0 · Answer 2 · 2016-07-23T10:02:31.113

Try this (?:(?!\A)\G|\[(?=[^\[\]]+\]))[^\[\].]*\K\.

Explanation

 (?:                           # Cluster start
      (?! \A )                      # Not beginning of string
      \G                            # G anchor - If matched before, start at end of last match
   |                              # or
      \[                            # Open bracket
      (?= [^\[\]]+ \] )             # Only if there is a closing bracked down stream
 )                             # Cluster end
 [^\[\].]*                     # Not brackets nor dot
 \K                            # Exclude previous in match
 \.                            # The dot, all thats left

Replace with whatever you want.
Note - for performance reasons, we limit latency by checking for closing
bracket only once per open bracket \[ (?= [^\[\]]+ \] )

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 21 '16 at 20:31

Since the number of levels is limited, one really straightforward approach is to use several searches, one for each number of levels.

Here is a search/replace for four levels:

Find what :   \[([^.]+)\.([^.]+)\.([^.]+)\.([^\]]+)\]
Replace with: \[$1:$2:$3:$4\]

Search expression is composed of ([^.]+)\. "not dots followed by a dot" groups enclosed in square brackets.

$1..$4 mean capturing groups, i.e. what's matched by the expression in parentheses.

To perform the replacement for fewer or more levels, add remove or add \.([^\.]+) in the search box, and adjust the replace box accordingly.

How do I replace characters enclosed inside of two brackets in Notepad++?

Explanation

Example

Failed Attempts

3 Answers3