Multiple word search and replace in Notepad++

Question

How can I replace several different words all at once in Notepad++?

For example;

I have "good", "great" and "fine" and I want to replace them with "bad", "worse" and "not", respectively, all at once.

I know that I can replace them one by one, but the problem I am facing requires that I replace a lot of words, which is not convenient to do.

AdrianHHH · Answer 1 · 2013-06-18T08:31:50.487

68

Try a regular expression replace of (good)|(great)|(fine) with (?1bad)(?2worse)(?3not).

The search looks for either of three alternatives separated by the |. Each alternative has ist own capture brackets. The replace uses the conditional form ?Ntrue-expression:false-expression where N is decimal digit, the clause checks whether capture expression N matches.

Tested in Notepad++ 6.3

Update:

You can find good documentation, about the new PRCE Regular Expressions, used by N++, since the 6.0 version, at the TWO addresses below :

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_48_0/libs/regex/doc/html/boost_regex/syntax/perl_syntax.html

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_48_0/libs/regex/doc/html/boost_regex/format/boost_format_syntax.html

The FIRST one concerns the syntax of regular expressions in SEARCH

The SECOND one concerns the syntax of regular expressions in REPLACEMENT

And, if you can understand "written French", I made a tutorial about PCRE regular expressions, stored in the personal site of Christian Cuvier (cchris), at the address below :

http://oedoc.free.fr/Regex/TutorielRegex.zip

(Extracted from a posting by THEVENOT Guy at http://sourceforge.net/p/notepad-plus/discussion/331754/thread/ca059a0a/ )

edited Jun 18 '13 at 08:31

answered Apr 19 '13 at 12:45

AdrianHHH

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Amazing! Could you add the source? I could not find this anywhere in the documentation. I use notepad++'s regex replace frequently and I'm curious if I could get more some cool stuff – Rishi Dua Jun 18 '13 at 08:10
index start at 0 for me in 6.4.5 – jpsimard-nyx Feb 18 '14 at 20:09
awesome never knew about this, use notepad++ for regex replace constantly. – OGHaza Mar 12 '14 at 16:45
This is awesome! But, do you know how to make it use the output of the previous search/replace for the next one? I assumed that's what it was doing because of the |, but it's not. – Patches Sep 18 '14 at 14:45
But how could we do this for a huge list? I have about 100 elements separated by ,'s and the other list separated by a comma too. – AbstractDissonance Mar 14 '17 at 18:25

score 30 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 24 '13 at 16:18

30

Install Python Script plugin from Plugin Manager.

Create a file with your substitutions (e.g., C:/Temp/Substitutions.txt), separate values with space:

good bad
great worse
fine not

Create a new script:

with open('C:/Temp/Substitutions.txt') as f:
    for l in f:
        s = l.split()
        editor.replace(s[0], s[1])

Run the new script against the text you want to substitute.

answered Apr 24 '13 at 16:18

Mauricio Morales

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1

Works well for simple search and replace. Doesn't work if the things to be replaced are regex itself. – Rishi Dua Jun 18 '13 at 08:03
3

@Rishi For the purposes of this question _simple search replace_ was enough. _Regex search replace_ can be achieved by using `editor.rereplace(s[0], s[1])` instead. Or even better `editor.pyreplace` to leverage full Python regex support. – Mauricio Morales Jun 24 '13 at 13:39
Cool! Now I get it. Thanks :) – Rishi Dua Jun 25 '13 at 00:13
How do I run this Python script across multiple files in NotePadd++? – AllSolutions May 17 '16 at 11:38

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 03 '23 at 03:27

2

I needed to run the substitution on several files. Based on Mauricio Morales's answer, I created the following script.

with open('C:/Temp/Substitutions.txt') as f:
    files = notepad.getFiles()
    for file in files:
        notepad.activateFile(file[0])
        for l in f:
            s = l.split()
            editor.replace(s[0], s[1])
        f.seek(0) # Reset file input stream

edited Feb 03 '23 at 03:27

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jan 11 '17 at 19:38

D.Kastier

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score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 05 '16 at 22:30

-1

If you're replacing the same words in several different files all the time, recording your action once using these buttons and saving it as a macro will be helpful. *Notepad++

answered Jan 05 '16 at 22:30

Altair Benemerito

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What do you mean by "*`Notepad++`"? – Peter Mortensen Feb 03 '23 at 03:25

Multiple word search and replace in Notepad++

4 Answers4

Install Python Script plugin from Plugin Manager.

Create a file with your substitutions (e.g., C:/Temp/Substitutions.txt), separate values with space:

Create a new script:

Run the new script against the text you want to substitute.

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