Regex Examples

Description:

This post is a companion post for Notepad++ but extracted out becuase you can use regex in most scripting languages.

To Resolve:

1. Examples:

To insert text at the beginning of each line:

1. Press Ctrl+A to select all text
2. Press Ctrl+H to bring up find/replace
3. Select the third radio button on the bottom left (search mode) for regular expression
4. In the find what type: ^
5. In the replace with type: (whatever text you want at the beginning of each line)

To insert text at the end of each line:

1. Press Ctrl+A to select all text
2. Press Ctrl+H to bring up find/replace
3. Select the third radio button on the bottom left (search mode) for regular expression
4. In the find what type: $
5. In the replace with type: (whatever text you want at the end of each line)

To Clear the text after a certain character on each line (for example a double quotation mark):

1. Search for the regular expression: ".*
2. Replace with (blank)
3. Another example: to remove everything after / on each line the search would be: /.**

Remove duplicates:

Find: ^(.\*?)$\s+?^(?=.\*^\1$)
Replace with: (blank)
Check the box . matches new line

Remove Empty lines:

Find: \r\n\W*\r\n
Replace with: \r\n

Remove just numbers (good for copying code):

Find: [0-9]
Replace: (blank)

Clear everything after a character, in this case, the double quotation mark

Find: ".*
Replace: (blank)

Clear entire line a phrase is found in.

Find: ^CONTENT.*$\n
Replace: (blank)

or:

Find: ^.*CONTENT.*$\n
Replace: (blank)

To remove trailing spaces:

Find: [ \t]+$
Replace: (blank)

To remove leading line spaces:

Find: ^[ \t]+
Replace: (blank)

To remove leading and trailing line spaces:

Find: ^[ \t]+|[ \t]+$
Replace: (blank)

Remove spaces in middle of a string:

Find: \s+(?=\s)
Replace: (blank)

Remove trailing spaces:

Find: ([^ \t])[ \t]+$
Replace: \1

To Capitalize Every Word:

Find: w+
Replace: u$0

To remove double lines:

Find: ^\n\n
Replace: (blank)

To Search A Phrase And Replace with (Phrase + Text):

Find: ^mail: ([a-z0-9]{6,})$

• example, will match mail: {any 6 characters} like mail: abcdef or mail: 12ctl9

Replace: mail: \1@subdomain.domain.com

• will replace mail: abcdef with mail: abcdef@subdomain.domain.com for example

To fix levels in Markdown:

Find all lists that start with 8 spaces and make them 7

Find: ^- With 8 spaces before for the -
Replace: - With 7 spaces before for the -

• Do this so that all first level lists is 3 spaces, 5 spaces for level 2 lists, and 7 spaces for level 3 lists.

To add a Sentences In Middle Of Text Blocks

Find: DirXML Replace: changeType: modify\nreplace: extensionAttribute10\nDirXML

• For the following example:

• Before:

   dn: cn=mxt8167,ou=Student,o=company
   DirXML-ADContext: CN=mxt8167,OU=Student,DC=company,DC=com
   extensionAttribute10: Fall_2011

• After:

   dn: cn=mxt8167,ou=Student,o=company
   changetype: modify
   replace: extensionAttribute10
   DirXML-ADContext: CN=mxt8167,OU=Student,DC=company,DC=com
   extensionAttribute10: Fall_2011

To find all instances of something not followed by something else:

• See answer

Find: Github(?!.com)

• Example: The previous line finds all instances of Github not followed by .com so no github.com should return.

Find: Github(?!.com|.io)

• Example: The previous line finds all instances of Github not followed by .com or .io so no github.com or github.io should return.