Basic Notepad++ Regular Expressions

What are regular expressions?

Regular expressions are a specific mechanism for finding or replacing some text. We can say that regular expressions are a kind of text pattern that matches some specific text. Replacement can be carried out in any line, in the whole file, or even in several files. Regular expressions are used by developers to write application code, and they are also used by testers in autotests.

Why are regular expressions needed?

Notepad++ is a free and open source text editor for Windows with syntax highlighting, markup, VHDL and Verilog hardware description languages. In simple words, this is a text editor designed not only for editing text files, but also for programming and coding.

Notepad gives you the ability to work with Regular Expressions. Regex Notepad is a pattern operation used to match sequences of characters in strings.

Basic notepad ++ regex is used for the following purposes:

• deleting all files that start with test, thus clearing all of its test data;
• finding all logs;
• finding all dates, etc.

In addition to this, regular expressions are needed for various kinds of substitutions. For example, by using them, you can replace the format of absolutely all dates located in the file. Of course, all this can be done manually, however, it is simple if there is only one date in the text, but if there are 300 of them, it will be much easier to use automatic replacement using regular expressions.

Regular expressions are very efficient for extracting the information you need from any text. In notepad, regular expressions are a very powerful tool that helps you fight routine work. In general, we can say that these are all the functions that regular expressions do.

Regular expressions in notepad macro

Notepad has standard symbols, for example:

• ... - any one character;
• * - the preceding character can be repeated;
• . * - absolutely any set of characters, etc.

You can add characters to the beginning or end of a line or paragraph. For example, it requires tagging specific text that has been copied from a word document. To do this, you need to put in the search - (^. * $), And in the line replace with - \ 1 and what needs to be inserted at the beginning and end of the line, in our example it is

Also, by using regular expressions, it is possible to add characters to the beginning or end of a line or paragraph. For example, you want a single tag to wrap a specific text that has been copied from a word document. To do this, enter $ in the search, and enter the required tag in the line replace with, not forgetting to add \ 1. Since we only add the required tag, () is absolutely unnecessary. However, if they still stand, there will be no errors, and the replacement will take place correctly.

An important feature is the removal of empty lines that do not contain spaces. To do this, enter \ n \ r in the search, and enter \ 0 in the replace with line, or leave this line empty. The next step is to open all the files that you want to \ clean up and enter characters. After that, you need to click on the Replace in all Open Documents button. Thus, empty lines that do not contain spaces are removed from all open documents.

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In addition to this, it is possible to remove blank lines that contain spaces. In this case, it is necessary to carry out several stages:

• removing spaces;
• removing blank lines.

In this regard, if there are empty lines or lines that contain spaces, it is necessary to first remove all problems, and then all lines according to the algorithm indicated above.

In order to remove all spaces, enter ^ [] * $ or ^ \ s * $, and in the line replace with enter \ 0 or leave this line completely blank. In the future, you need to open all files in which you need to remove spaces, and then click the Replace in all Open Documents button.

This way, in all documents that have been opened, spaces are removed in blank lines. Next, you just need to delete all empty lines.

Also in notepad there is such a function as deleting absolutely all lines that contain a certain word. Moreover, today a large number of removal methods are known, each of which has certain advantages and disadvantages. Most of these ways are done through the use of regular expressions. However, there are ways that are much simpler.

Open the file in notepad, then press Ctrl + f and find the required word in the Mark tab. As a result, all lines containing the specified word will be marked. In order to delete them, you need to go to the menu, press search and select the Delete all lines with a bookmark button. This way, all lines with the specified word will be deleted at the same time.

More Notepad++ tips and tricks

• Compare two files in Notepad++
  
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• Copy with formatting in Notepad++