Replace multiple occurrences in the same line

Question

I'm using Notepad++ to replace some lines. Basically what I want to do is:

line 1 -

STR::P=FOOXPATTERN=5 AND MORETHINGS YPATTERN=9 BUT XPATTERN=3 AND YPATTERN=20

line 2 -

MOR::P=BAR XPATTERN=1 STRSTR MORETHINGS YPATTERN=1BUT XPATTERN=10 AND YPATTERN=40

...

So this must be transformed in:

line 1

XPATTERN=5|YPATTERN=9|PATTERN=3|YPATTERN=20

line 2 -

XPATTERN=1|YPATTERN=1|XPATTERN=10|YPATTERN=40

My point is that I can have many XPATTERN and many YPATTERN in the same line. Then I would like to replace all my line for the pattern found.

I tried to use negation on regex, but with no success.

Please, [edit your question](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/60012019/edit) and add real values for `XPATTERN` & `YPATTERN` in a real test case. — Toto, Feb 01 '20 at 11:13

Barmar · Answer 1 · 2020-01-31T22:48:08.153

0

Use a regexp that matches the pattern and anything before it, and replaces it with just the pattern.

Replace: .*?((XPATTERN|YPATTERN|ZPATTERN|...)=\d+)
With: |\1

If there's something after all the patterns, you can remove the rest after the above replacements with:

Replace: ^((\|(XPATTERN|YPATTERN|ZPATTERN|...)=\d+)*).*
With: \1

This will leave a | at the beginning of each line. You can remove that as a third step:

Replace: ^\|
With: empty string

edited Jan 31 '20 at 22:48

answered Jan 31 '20 at 22:29

Barmar

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I wrote YPATTERN and XPATTERN for better understanding. Actually in each line I have two different patterns like....**ZBR_4540XX::** and **OOPP400X!!** – Warvimo Jan 31 '20 at 22:33
something like.../(xpattern=\d|ypattern=\d*)/ – Warvimo Jan 31 '20 at 22:35
WOW. It's almost perfect, thank you! but I forgot to mention that can be more string in the end of the line. I swear that I try to do it, but couldln`t. Can you show me? – Warvimo Jan 31 '20 at 22:41
That makes it harder. This would be much easier in a programming language than a text editor. – Barmar Jan 31 '20 at 22:44

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 01 '20 at 14:09

Ctrl+H
Find what: (?:^|\G(?!^)).*?((?:XPATTERN|YPATTERN)=\d+)(?:(?!(?:XPATTERN|YPATTERN)=).)*($)?
Replace with: $1(?2:|))
CHECK Match case
CHECK Wrap around
CHECK Regular expression
UNCHECK . matches newline
Replace all

Explanation:

(?:                     # non capture group
    ^                       # beginning of line
  |                       # OR
    \G(?!^)                 # restart from last match position, not at the beginning of line
)                       # end group
.*?                     # 0 or more any character but newline
(                       # group 1
    (?:                     # non capture group
        XPATTERN                # XPATTERN
      |                       # OR
        YPATTERN                # YPATTERN
    )                       # end group
    =\d+                    # equal sign followed by 1 or more digits
)                       # end group 1
(?:                     # non capture group
    (?!                     # negative lookahead, make sure we haven't after:
        (?:                     # non capture group
            XPATTERN                # XPATTERN
          |                       # OR
            YPATTERN                # YPATTERN
        )                       # end group
        =                       # equal sign
    )                       # end lookahead
    .                       # any character but newline
)*                      # end group, may appear 0 or more times
($)?                    # group 1, end of line, optional

Replacement:

$1              # content of group 1 (i.e. X or Y PATTERN = digits)
(?2             # IF group 2 exists (end of line), do nothing
    :           # ELSE
    |           # add a pipe character
)               # ENDIF

Screen capture (before):

Screen capture (after):

@downvoter: Really nice your downvote, is there any reason? – Toto Feb 03 '20 at 10:46 — Toto, Feb 03 '20 at 10:46
I never understood these people! – Shahin Feb 03 '20 at 17:37 — Shahin, Feb 03 '20 at 17:37

Replace multiple occurrences in the same line

2 Answers2