A look at the power of Regular Expressions for the layman Use in Notepad++ Anjesh Tuladhar http://anjesh.blogspot.com http://just-tech.blogspot.com

Alert Don’t expect to master regular expressions (regex) in this short presentation. This shows how you can exploit regex to make your work a breeze It takes a lot of time and hard work to learn regex You don’t have to be a programmer to master regular expressions, though being a programmer is definitely a plus point

Don’t expect to master regular expressions (regex) in this short presentation.

This shows how you can exploit regex to make your work a breeze

It takes a lot of time and hard work to learn regex

You don’t have to be a programmer to master regular expressions, though being a programmer is definitely a plus point

Remove numbers from the list of 1000 rows of names

Choose “Replace” from “Search” menu

You will get a replace dialog box.

Type [0-9]* (.*) in find what box, 1 in replace with box. Note: There’s a space between [0-9]* and (.*).

Check Regular Expression checkbox to exploit regex functionality.

Hurray! Done.

A short explanation [0-9]* will match numbers only In our case it matches numbers only .* will match any characters, including numbers till the end of the line Use of the curve brackets will act as a memory Enclosing .* with brackets like (.*) will allow to access it using 1 (see in the replace box) The space between [0-9]* and (.*) represents the actual space between numbers and the names in the list

[0-9]* will match numbers only

In our case it matches numbers only

.* will match any characters, including numbers till the end of the line

Use of the curve brackets will act as a memory

Enclosing .* with brackets like (.*) will allow to access it using 1 (see in the replace box)

The space between [0-9]* and (.*) represents the actual space between numbers and the names in the list

Now you have to swap numbers and names, but separated by comma.

Type ( [0-9]*) (.*) in find what box, 2,1 in replace with box.

Replaced!

A short explanation See previous explanation for [0-9]* and (.*) Now enclosing [0-9]* with curve brackets will allow to access it First curve bracket can be accessed using 1 and second can be accessed using 2 Hence we are swapping the position of names and numbers

See previous explanation for [0-9]* and (.*)

Now enclosing [0-9]* with curve brackets will allow to access it

First curve bracket can be accessed using 1 and second can be accessed using 2

Hence we are swapping the position of names and numbers

Now you have to remove numbers, put last-name first, followed by first-name, and separated by comma.

Type ( [0-9]*) ([^ ]*) (.*) in find what box, 3,2 in replace with box.

Replaced!

A short explanation [0-9]* will match numbers only [^ ]* will match anything from the current position till it finds space, which in our case will match the first-names only .* will match any character from the current position till the end of the line Now [0-9]* is accessed using 1, [^ ]* is accessed using 2 and .* is access using 3, since all of those expressions are enclosed with curve brackets

[0-9]* will match numbers only

[^ ]* will match anything from the current position till it finds space, which in our case will match the first-names only

.* will match any character from the current position till the end of the line

Now [0-9]* is accessed using 1, [^ ]* is accessed using 2 and .* is access using 3, since all of those expressions are enclosed with curve brackets

The beginning Make today a noble beginning with The Regular Expressions

Make today

a noble beginning

with The Regular Expressions