I need a regex to repair lines split at column 80

Question

Problem - Multiline, Semi-colon delimited file has been split at column 79 or 80 (not always the same for some strange reason).

It seems to me that a Regex would be the appropriate solution, so now I have two problems.

Lines are:

1sdf.............................mno[cr][lf]
pqr........xyz......................[cr][lf]
.....|.....|.....|.....|.....|.....|[cr][lf]
2sdf.............................mno[cr][lf]
pqr........xyz......................[cr][lf]
.....|.....|.....|.....|.....|.....|[cr][lf]
3sdf.............................mno[cr][lf]
pqr........xyz......................[cr][lf]
.....|.....|.....|.....|.....|.....|[cr][lf]
4sdf.............................mno[cr][lf]
pqr........xyz......................[cr][lf]
.....|.....|.....|.....|.....|.....|[cr][lf]
... 10000 rows ...

Where the pipe is a non-space whitespace character (possibly a tab)

I need:

1sdf.............................mnopqr........xyz......................[cr][lf]
2sdf.............................mnopqr........xyz......................[cr][lf]
3sdf.............................mnopqr........xyz......................[cr][lf]
4sdf.............................mnopqr........xyz......................[cr][lf]

I managed to get the job done with

Pass 1: Replace ^\s*\r\n with \rxxx\n

// Replace Blank lines with \rxxx\n leaving

1sdf.............................mno[cr][lf]
pqr........xyz......................[cr][lf]
[cr]xxx[lf]
2sdf.............................mno[cr][lf]
pqr........xyz......................[cr][lf]

Pass 2: Replace \r\n with [empty] //leaving:

1sdf.............................mnopqr........xyz......................[cr]
xxx[lf]
2sdf.............................mnopqr........xyz......................

Pass 3: Replace \rxxx\n with \r\n

//leaving:

1sdf.............................mnopqr........xyz......................[cr][lf]
2sdf.............................mnopqr........xyz......................

And the rest of the cleanup is trivial.

Is there any way of doing this in a single step? The output is from a common financial application, and I'd rather be able to fix the files myself rather than try and get many multiple clients to adjust their output.

does replacing `\r\n\s*((\r\n)?)` with captured group no. `1` not work? (If you tell us which engine/technology you are using I could possibly test it myself and post it as a proper answer ;)) — Martin Ender, Oct 11 '12 at 21:55
Nope. It replaces all newlines, and leaves me with one single line. I'm playing with it in notepad++, but I can adjust flavours as required. — Chris Cudmore, Oct 12 '12 at 12:39
I just tested it, it works with a minor caveat. Let me write an answer... — Martin Ender, Oct 12 '12 at 12:52

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

1

In Notepad++ (using regular expression mode) you can use this:

Find what: \r\n(\s*\r\n)?

Replace with: \1

Then run "Replace All" exactly once. However, make sure you update to Notepad++ 6! Otherwise matching \r\n with a regular expression won't work in Notepad++.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

Community

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answered Oct 12 '12 at 12:55

Martin Ender

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Luis · Answer 2 · 2012-10-12T10:11:43.190

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Assuming that ^\s*\r\n match the line you want to remove as you said above, I believe you could do it with replacing \r\n\s*\r\n|\r\n by \r\n

It's my first regex, so if it doesn't work, don't be to harsh :-)

Good luck

edited Oct 12 '12 at 10:11

answered Oct 11 '12 at 23:49

Luis

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This won't remove the first of every three `\r\n` as requested. – Martin Ender Oct 12 '12 at 08:51
@m.buettner I expect it to be remove. That's the reason for the pipe followed by the additional `\n\r` – Luis Oct 12 '12 at 10:11
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It matches the first `\r\n`, but it does not get replaced. You replace the `\r\n` after the pipe by `\r\n` which just leaves it in place. – Martin Ender Oct 12 '12 at 12:20

I need a regex to repair lines split at column 80

2 Answers2