TextPad "find in files" not matching on simple OR regex

Question

I've tried searching files for either/or word scenarios and they always fail to find any results in TextPad.

An example is trying to find something like summer|winter where I want to return any files that contain either the word "summer" or the word "winter".

enter image description here

This regex works fine in other programs like Notepad++. Why doesn't it work in TextPad?

Haven't used it in years,but assuming you turned on the regex search option maybe textpad wants you to write the parens `(summer|winter)` or i've seen this in some apps `\(summer|winter\)` which is non-obvious cause you woud think you don't want to escape but it requires you to. — gillyspy, May 03 '13 at 18:59
their online faq says that they fixed "Reject "|" as a regular expression" in 7.0.7 — gillyspy, May 04 '13 at 00:46
@gillyspy Thanks! I'm using an older version so that must be the issue. If you add this as an answer I'll accept it. — Splendor, May 06 '13 at 14:14

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered May 06 '13 at 14:27

4

Textpad.com online release notes says that they fixed a bug in 7.0.7 related to this where they:

Reject "|" as a regular expression

answered May 06 '13 at 14:27

gillyspy

1,578
8
14

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 17 '14 at 00:51

1

Textpad seems to use slightly unusual syntax for regex 'finds'. Read the TextPad help file for the details. Here is an example for finding a IPv4 number. It works with textpad v4.7.3 'Find' and 'Find in files'

[^0-9][0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}[^0-9]

edited Aug 17 '14 at 00:51

rayryeng

102,964
22
184
193

answered Aug 17 '14 at 00:32

Tidy Jim

11
1

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 25 '18 at 19:11

1

On older versions It works with: \(summer\|winter\),

Escape (alt+92 backslash) before every paren and "or" carácter.

edited Apr 25 '18 at 19:11

Matheus Cuba

2,068
1
20
31

answered Apr 25 '18 at 19:05

Juan Peñaherrera

45
6

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 09 '14 at 18:16

0

Using Textpad 6.x, I have to escape the or operator and it works:

summer\|winter

answered Jan 09 '14 at 18:16

Racer Online

1

score -1 · Answer 5 · answered May 03 '13 at 18:59

-1

Try (summer)|(winter): it could be reading it as summe(r|w)inter.

answered May 03 '13 at 18:59

Steven Liao

3,577
3
19
25

TextPad "find in files" not matching on simple OR regex

5 Answers5

Linked