The Power of Regular Expression: use in notepad++

1. 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

2. 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

3. Remove numbers from the list of 1000 rows of names

4. Choose “Replace” from “Search” menu

5. You will get a replace dialog box.

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

7. Check Regular Expression checkbox to exploit regex functionality.

8. Hurray! Done.

9. 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

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

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

12. Replaced!

13. 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

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

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

16. Replaced!

17. 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

18. The beginning
Make today
a noble beginning
with The Regular Expressions