Shortening a block of text

Question

This should be pretty damn simple, but I'm a newb at this. Let's say I'm dealing with a block of text 300+ characters long.

I want a regex string which will find any and all characters AFTER the first 200 characters, all the way to the end ($).

I want to delete everything past the first 200 characters. I'm dumping this data into a spreadsheet and don't need EVERYTHING.

==== update =====

Sorry guys, let be very specific. I'm not really using a programming language. (I'm in the app Ubot) Imagine you have a 300+ text block on a page in Textpad. You hit F8 and do a REPLACE. I check the box REGULAR EXPRESSION.

What would the Regular Expression I would use to FIND the first 200 characters, then REPLACE the remaining with NOTHING. (i.e. delete)

So you want to select the first 200 characters. `^.{200}` But do you need a regex for that or can you do that in code as well? — The fourth bird, May 24 '19 at 19:38
Would recommend playing with this to see if it works for you. https://regexr.com/4elge — RugerSR9, May 24 '19 at 19:40
Do you want to match the character AFTER the first 200 to delete them or those BEFORE to keep them? — Yunnosch, May 24 '19 at 19:42
Which language is the program in? There is usually a simple function in most computer languages to get a substring from a string. — Andrew Morton, May 24 '19 at 19:47
I think this is why I'm screwing you guys up - I'm not using a standard language, more like Textpad. (see above) — Biks Wigglesworth, May 24 '19 at 20:20

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered May 24 '19 at 19:43

I want a regex string which will find any and all characters AFTER the first 200 characters, all the way to the end ($).

This regex matches everything except the first 200 characters:

(?<=^[\s\S]{200})[\s\S]*$

If your regex engine supports \K, you can also do:

^[\s\S]{200}\K[\s\S]*$

I want to delete everything past the first 200 characters

That sounds like you just want to match the first 200 characters, which can be done with this regex:

^[\s\S]{200}

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 24 '19 at 19:45

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Your second and third paragraphs are kind of contradictory. Try this fork of @RugerSR9's that selects up to 200 characters (your input could be less than that, and I assume you still want it).

^.{0,200}

You may want to look at something other than a regex though, e.g., in pseudo-code, string.Left(200).

answered May 24 '19 at 19:45

Kit

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OK, in Textpad (see above) ^.{0,25} does select the first 25 characters. Now I need to select the opposite till the end ($). – Biks Wigglesworth May 24 '19 at 20:30

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 30 '19 at 23:46

Old question, but I don't see any answers that are specific to the OPs question and it could help others in the future. Make sure the Use POSIX regular expression syntax is turned off in the preferences.

Search for:

^$.\{0,200\}$.*$

And replace with:

\1

Explanation, this (^$.\{0,200\}$) will match upto the first 200 chars from the start of the line and put them into group \1. The remaining (.*$ will match the rest of the chars on the line up until the end. The replacement expression replaces the entire line with the \1 group that was matched.

Bonus if you need it a lot. Record it as a macro and then you can trim your files down with a few mouse clicks.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 21 '20 at 20:19

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For that purpose I use the block mode in textpad - there is no need to use regex.

answered Sep 21 '20 at 20:19

Peter

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Shortcut: Strg+Q, B – Peter Apr 08 '22 at 10:02

Shortening a block of text

4 Answers4