replace underscore with dash in url using notepadd++ regex

Question

Ok i have this multiple static html and on each html urls are accompanied with underscore i want to replace all url that has underscore with dash here are the actual codes

1)

<a href="/category/how_to_tell_your_dad_that_you_are_pregnant/index.html">How to tell my dad that i am pregnant</a>

2)

< href="/premarital_sex/index.html">Premarital Sex</a>

should be

1)

<a href="/category/how-to-tell-your-dad-that-you-are-pregnant/index.html">How to tell my dad that i am pregnant</a>

2)

< href="/premarital-sex/index.html">Premarital Sex</a>

i want to replace all URL's on all of my static html how can i do that? or is it even possible?

i tried htaccess but no luck so i'll just have to use notepad++ instead or powergrep but i am not really sure how or where to start :(

thanks in advance guys

EDIT

I guess I'm near:

(href=")*[_](.+?">)

@markong: Help != Do-it-all-for-you. Try at least something, share the issue you have, and we'll be happy to solve that issue for you. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Apr 08 '16 at 10:06
Yes, like: Find What: (href="[^"]*?)_ Replace with: \1- There's one caveat: you need to click replace several times. — Tamas Rev, Apr 08 '16 at 10:45
@tamas rev thanks but it seems like it only finds the 1st underscore what if it has multiple underscore? thanks to yiu — mark ong, Apr 08 '16 at 10:53

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 08 '16 at 11:20

3

You can easily work around the problem of a missing infinite width lookbehind in Notepad++ and Sublime Text with the help of \G operator.

Use

(\bhref="|(?!^)\G)[^"<_]*\K_

And replace with -.

Explanation:

(\bhref="|(?!^)\G) - define the leftmost boundary for a match: a whole word href=" should be matched (\b is a word boundary) or match the position at the end of the previous successful match (with (?!^)\G)
[^"<_]* - match 0+ characters other than ", < and _
\K - omit the whole text we matched so far from the buffer
_ - match only this character - and only this will be replaced.

answered Apr 08 '16 at 11:20

Wiktor Stribiżew

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No need to click 10+ times, just click *Replace All* once. – Wiktor Stribiżew Apr 08 '16 at 11:23
oh my god :)) this is the solution i am looking for .. so perfect what a genius – mark ong Apr 08 '16 at 11:27

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 08 '16 at 10:54

1

You need another editor that supports variable length lookbehinds. NP++ doesn't.

So, with a smart editor, sublime probably, you could do this: in one go: Find for this: (?<=href="[^"]*)_(?=[^"]*") and replace them with this: -.

In notepad++ you can do this instead: Find this: (href="[^"]*)_(?=[^"]*") and replace them with this: \1-. But you'll have to click Replace All several times. I.e. the url having the most underscores has 10, then you have to click it 10 times.

answered Apr 08 '16 at 10:54

Tamas Rev

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An infinite width lookbehind is not necessary here. There is a way to do it without that construct. – Wiktor Stribiżew Apr 08 '16 at 11:01
im getting invalid look behind on subime and notepad++ as well im using regex to find – mark ong Apr 08 '16 at 11:15

replace underscore with dash in url using notepadd++ regex

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