Notepad++ bulk search and replace string with another string within the same line

Question

I've got a file filled with a bunch of variable declarations looking like this:

//comment line
STR_first_string = "This is the first message to be shown.";
STR_another_message = "Second message here";
STR_string_message_three = "And the third one.";
STR_notification_number_four = "Bla bla yadder yadder";

//another comment line
...

Don't mind the inconsequent naming. It's just to show that the variable names are all different, except for the beginning STR_.

Now, I want to add something to every single line of the file, so that it looks like this:

//comment line
STR_first_string = "This is the first message to be shown."; publicVariable "STR_first_string";
STR_another_message = "Second message here"; publicVariable "STR_another_message";
STR_string_message_three = "And the third one."; publicVariable "STR_string_message_three";
STR_notification_number_four = "Bla bla yadder yadder"; publicVariable "STR_notification_number_four";

//another comment line
...

I informed myself about how to use RegEx in Notepad++. Basically, I intended to replace the terminating ; with publicVariable " and then some fancy regex expression. But I haven't found something matching this particular problem. I'd be really happy if someone could help!

Regards, Stacky

Could you check my answer? In case of problems leave comment under it. You can also leave info if it worked for you. — Pshemo, Apr 23 '14 at 16:52

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 23 '14 at 13:53

1

It sounds like you just want to replace:

(STR_\S+)\s*=\s*".*";

...with:

\0 publicVariable "\1";

answered Apr 23 '14 at 13:53

Russell Zahniser

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+1, but while general idea is correct not all Notepad++ version support `\0` group reference so consider surrounding regex with parenthesis to place it in group 1 and as replacement use `\1 publicVariable "\2";`. – Pshemo Apr 23 '14 at 13:58
Unfortunately, the first regex considers the whole file as one single match, since it doesn't know what `*` is and thereby doesn't know that this regex should be used line by line. So this regex marks a text block, starting at the very first `STR_` and ends at the very last `;`. – Stacky Apr 23 '14 at 14:05
@Stacky Strange, I don't have this problem. Well in that case don't use `".*"` but `"[^"]*"` (I assume that your strings don't have some inner escaped `"`). – Pshemo Apr 23 '14 at 14:10
Alright, the regex now recognizes every single line. But I believe, I use the replace term incorrectly. To clearify, the search statement marks the whole line. But I don't want to replace the whole line, I only want to add the variable name (beginning with `STR_`) to be in the quotes of the `publicVariable` declaration. And that still doesn't work yet. – Stacky Apr 23 '14 at 14:19
@Stacky `the search statement marks the whole line. But I don't want to replace the whole line` That is OK. This regex should replace whole line with exactly same line plus additional values including variable name after `STR_`. – Pshemo Apr 23 '14 at 14:24
Using `\0 publicVariable "\1";` simply deletes the whole line. Using `\1 publicVariable "\2";` gives me the following result: `STR_first_string publicVariable "";` I don't know what I'm doing wrong... – Stacky Apr 23 '14 at 16:39
let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/51294/discussion-between-stacky-and-pshemo) – Stacky Apr 23 '14 at 16:45

Pshemo · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-23T16:48:34.147

1

You can try replacing

((STR_\S+)\s*=\s*"([^"]|\\")*";)

with

\1 publicVariable "\2";

\1 will represent part matched by entire regex and \2 represents part matched by (STR_\S+).

edited Apr 23 '14 at 16:48

answered Apr 23 '14 at 13:55

Pshemo

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That's exactly it! Thank you very much! – Stacky Apr 23 '14 at 17:00

Notepad++ bulk search and replace string with another string within the same line

2 Answers2