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StrongED Search and Replace

# Define a key to replace tab by comma

Tying this S&R to a key is easy. Open the modes menu by clicking Adjust on StrongED's iconbar icon. Click Shift-Select on the name of the mode in which you want to add the keypress. In the ModeFile opened, find the KeyList (if it's BaseMode then find the main KeyList). Pick a suitable key combination and assign it the following: Replace("\t",",",Text,NoLine,NoCase) Save the file when done and the new keypress should be available.

# Define a key to replace many new lines with one

In order to do this you'll need to add a search pattern to the Search section of the relevant ModeFile. You'll also need to a Replace pattern to the Replace section. Finally you'll need to add a binding to the KeyList, the main KeyList if you want to add it to BaseMode. (Fred) I'm going to assume it's BaseMode you want to alter. Ctrl-Adjust-click on StrongED's iconbar icon to load the BaseMode ModeFile. Then click on the LoF icon on the toolbar to get a list of various sections in the ModeFile. Click on the 'Search' line in the LoF to move to that section and add the following line: ManyNewlines {\n}+ Next move to the 'Replace' section and add this line: SingleNewline \n Finally, click on the 'KeyList' line in the LoF, find the line that defines ctrl-tab (^Tab) and replace it with: ^Tab Replace(ManyNewlines,SingleNewline,Text,NoLine,NoCase) Now save the file (to UserPrefs if it's not already there) and you should have it working.

# SEARCH examples

The StrongED manual now has a good explanation of search and replace see >>Introduction > Search and Replace2 But here are some examples which work; eg - find a date at start of line search ##"."##"."## eg - everything up to and including the second tab character on a line search *\t*\t eg - everything up to and including the second tab character search **\t**\t note: ** ignores newlines eg - "fold" but not "folder" search "fold" ~ "e" eg - all rows that end in INTMETRICS search < * "INTMETRICS"> < start of line * followed by anything "INTMETRICS" followed immediately > by end of line eg - matches ","11 search punct","punct##" " but could be coded as:- search \"\,\"##" " eg - string on its own on the line "*Report \g" search "*Report "\\"g"~Any eg - SYS - but NOT SYS "Wimp... search "SYS"..~"Wimp"{Any}4 eg - Ifconfig and Ipconfig search "I" 'fp' "config" eg - ignore till "!" then anything but "." Fred Graute (all applications in an EnumDir list) search < * "!" {~"." Any}+ > eg - all words beginning with A search White 'aA' {AD} find all text which is NOT words beginning with A search ~'aA' ** (White 'aA' {AD}) eg - all rows that don't end in readme bad search < ~"readme" Any> will match any character that isn't an "r" at the start of "readme", for example the sentence: This is a readme file ^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^ produces matches for all characters indicated by "^". What you want is something like this: ~"readme" {Any}6 > Which checks if the string at the search pointer isn't "readme". If true then match the next 6 characters, because "readme" is 6 characters long. Then test if we're at and of line, if so then we have a match. If false then the match fails in which case StrongED will bump the search pointer ahead one character, then tries the search expression again. eg - .... [aaa ........ [bbb] .... find [bbb] search: "[" { ~'[' ? | ' ' | '.' }+ "]" would find only [bbb] > a fairly large text file in which I want to remove a whole lot of > strings of the form [****], where the **** bit contains alphabetic > characters, upper and lower case, spaces and full stops. Try "[" { ? | ' ' | '.' }+ "]" > Many thanks, Tony, but I think that just proves that the syntax of > advanced search passeth my understanding :-( It's not _that_ complicated! "[" "]" bookends the search for { }+ one or more characters from ? the predefined set A-Za-z | or ' ' the set comprising space | or '.' the set comprising full stop Advanced Search: Examples copied from the StrongED Help manual If you place something between \{ and }, then StrongED will match the pattern against the text until it fails. If you have a "+" after, then StrongED must find it at least once to report a sucess. If there is no "+", then it will always match.. "B" \{"A"} : Matches "B", "BA", "BAA", "BAAA" and so on.. "B" \{"A"}+ : Match "B", but only if followed by at least 1 "A" If you place something in square brackets, then it is optional. If it matches the text, then fine.. if not, that's fine too.. "A" ["B"] "C" : Matches "ABC" and "AC" The bar is the OR operator. We first try to match the left side. If that doesn't work, we try the right side.. "A" | "B" : Matches "A" or "B" "A"|"B"|"C" : Matches "A" or "B" or "C" The parenthesis are used to group things together.. This is useful in connection with the OR and NOT operators and with the wildcards.. "A" | "B" "C" = "A" or "B", followed by "C" "A" | ("B" "C") = "A" or "BC" The ~ is the NOT operator. It will match what comes after with the text, and will accept a "match" if it fails, and refuse if it does match. Note that after a NOT match, we are still at the same point in the text: "A" ~ "B" : Matches "A" if the following char is not "B" "A" ~ "B" Any : Matches "A" and the following char, but only if it's not a "B".. There are two wildcard operators. The "*" and the "**" "A" * "B" : Matches "A" \ "B" "A" ** "B" : Matches "A" \ "B" #fH2:advanced examples To capture an entire line if it contains two certain words, irrespective of order.. \< \* (("foo" \* "bar") | ("bar" \* "foo")) \* \> To match an entire paragraph.. \< ~\\n \{~(\\n\\n) (.|\\n)}+ \\n To match an entire paragraph if it contains a certain word, in this example it's 'foobar'.. \< ~\\n \{~(\\n\\n) ~"foobar" (.|$)} "foobar" \{~(\\n\\n) (.|$)} To match an entire paragraph if it contains the word at the caret.. \< ~\\n \{~(\\n\\n) ~CW (.|$)} CW \{~(\\n\\n) (.|$)}

# Replace examples

To replace with null use "" not an empty icon - both forms work for the replace but recall only works with the "" eg insert newline before upper case letter search @1'A-Z'@2 replace /nl@12 eg replace a date by the date followed by the string "-->" search @1##"."##"."##@2 replace @12" --> " eg - add a string to end of line search /n replace /t" 0"/n before Acland juliet.acland@orange.fr after Acland juliet.acland@orange.fr 0 eg - replace C1,C2,C3 by Cv1,Cv2,Cv3 search "C"@1# replace "Cv"@19 eg - replace Cv1 ,Cv2 ,Cv3 by Cv1 ,Cv2 ,Cv3 search "Cv"@1#@2" " replace "Cv"@12" " eg - replace multiple new lines with a single new line search {\n]+ replace \n only does it once eg - remove string up to and including a common word keeping everything that follows on the same line search *"Then "@1 replace @19 before IfThere !anyoldapp Then Filer_Run !anyoldapp after Filer_Run !anyoldapp eg - change array to vector and rename it entries are of the form: stack(i-1,1) = stack(i,1) stack(lastinstack-1,1) = save_col these should become: scols(i-1) = scols(i) scols(lastinstack-1) = save_col search "stack"@1*@2",1" replace "scols"@12 eg - replace first blank after email address with tab search "." * @1 " " replace @01\t eg - remove everything after email address in Messenger addr list !!! search "@"*@1/t{.} replace @01 eg - swap columns in a table (Archive v17/04) search: <{ad}@1"\t"@2{.}> replace: @29"\t"@01 eg - another swap example search: *\t*\t@1{Any}+ replace: @19" "@01 before .t2.PICT3387/JPG JPEG 2004-10-18 11:02:43 after 2004-10-18 11:02:43 .t2.PICT3387/JPG JPEG this format can now be sorted into date order eg - and another swap search: *\t@1{Any}+ replace: @19" "@01 before .t2.PICT3387/JPG JPEG 2004-10-18 11:02:43 after JPEG 2004-10-18 11:02:43 .t2.PICT3387/JPG this format can now be sorted into filetype date order eg - split a column in two search \"\,\"@3##@4" - "@5 replace @03@34@03@59 :- before "songs of freedom","11 - Bob Marley" after "songs of freedom","11","Bob Marley" explanation: \" finds the first quote character \, finds the comma \" finds the 2nd quote character @3 marks the end of the string therefore @03 is "," for replace string simmilarly @34 picks up the two digits ## @03 is another "," and @59 picks up the remainder of the line note the string " - " is dropped eg - replace trailing comma: search \,> replace (null string) eg - replace rubbish in email attachment: search "="@1\n replace @19 find "=" followed by hex 0A, replace with hex 0A eg - replace 8 spaces by two tabs search " " replace \x09\x09 better to use >>block>process>spaces to tab line ends are best handled by >>edit >change \n >.. but.. eg - replace cr with lf Risc to Mac search \x0D **** CASE *** replace \x0A eg - replace lf with crlf Risc to Dos search @1\x0A@2 replace \x0D@12 eg - replace crlf with lf Dos to Risc search \x0D@1\x0A@2 replace @12 eg - insert string at start of line with hit search *".ttc" replace "string"@09 eg - put tabs after a string search ".ttc" replace @09\t\t eg - replace all text that is not a word beginning A or a search ~'aA' ** (White @1 'aA' {AD}) replace @09\n (see below for explanation) eg - replace leading blanks search <{" "}+ replace "" eg - replace first 7 characters of each line with 7 blanks search <....... replace " " eg - delete lines containing a string (at the end) search *"GIF"\n replace "" eg - delete null lines search <\n replace "" eg - delete blank lines search <{" "}+\n replace "" > > 'Wrap lines' doesn't remove leading whitespace but as it's a simple S&R > > that could be changed or a new S&R could be created to cater for this, > > eg: > > > > Search for: ~NL Any @1 {'\t '} ~(NL NL) NL {'\t '} > > Interpretation (hopefully correct): Not a newline, Any string, @1 > marker, zero or more tabs and spaces, Not 2 newlines, newline, > zero or more tabs and spaces. Close but for absolute clarity I'll spell it out: ~NL initial char is not a newline (NB doesn't advance searchpointer) Any match any char (here it's used to advance the search pointer) @1 set marker #1, by default @0 is start and @9 is end of match {'\t '} zero or more tabs and/or spaces [1] ~(NL NL) not 2 consecutive newlines (NB doesn't advance searchpointer) NL match newline {'\t '} zero or more tabs and/or spaces [1] [1] using a set (aka character class) is faster than using alternation (\t|" "). > > Replace with: @01 " " > > Interpretation: From start to the @1 marker, followed by a space. Yep. > The bit before the marker is a line of text without the trailing > whitespace. The bit after it is the trailing whitespace, > the newline, and the leading whitespace on the next line. The bit before the marker is the last char on the line. > The 'not 2 NL' bit presumably prevents a match for lines that are > followed by a blank line. Yes. > Such a search/replace be made to operate directly, responding to a > keystroke. But can it be made to act only on current line (joining > it to the next line)? No, you have to select a block if you want to restrict the scope. You could try the following untested definition which requires the cursor to be in the first line: BlockClear() StartOfTLine() BlockMark_Continous() CaretDown() EndOfTline() BlockMark_Continous() Replace(<parameters go here>)

# search with not ~

> Well, this one (as I hypothesised) didn't work, for example: > > Replace("(~\x0D)\x0A\x0D","\l",text,noline,nocase) > > When presented with a string of 0D0A 0D0A 0D0A, it simply treated it as > two 0A0Ds with a leading 0D and trailing 0A. The first 0D, and the > third, were supposed to have returned an invalid match. What went > wrong? It would seem that you are misunderstanding how ~ works. When the search expression ismatched against the string 0D0A 0D0A 0D0A the following happens: - ~\x0D is matched against 0D, this fails so the matching stops and StrongED moves to the next character in the string, ie 0A - Matching ~\x0D against 0A succeeds as does the rest of the search expression so the replacement is made. - The search continues after the replacement string. If * is the replacement string then the situation now looks like this: 0D*0A 0D0A ^ matching continues here - The match at the continuation point succeeds so another replacement is made. resulting in 0D**0A. - The next match fails as there's only a single 0A left. Hopefully this clarifies how ~ works. If not, then don't hesitate to ask further questions. Cheers, Fred.

© JR 2013