How to convert multiple repeating rows to columns and then from columns back to rows in Notepad++

Question

I have multiple (+/- 2500) repeating rows in one column that I need to convert to a fixed set of columns which matches the repetition of the rows i.e. ABCDE-ABCDE, do my editing in column mode, then convert back to rows. This is an abridged example of my data:

A
B
C
D
E
A
B
C
D
E

I would like it to be like this:

A   B   C   D   E
A   B   C   D   E

Then convert back to rows.

Follow this link: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3961217/how-to-format-xml-in-notepad — Hamed Javaheri, Jul 17 '16 at 05:46
what you need is a json formatter plugin. [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1560464/how-to-reformat-json-in-notepad) is a similar question — guleryuz, Jul 17 '16 at 13:50
Well, JSMin will reformat the whole string above to `[{"E":{"T","H","U","L","D","N"},"S"},{"E":{"T","H","U","L","D","N"},"S"},]` (all on one line). — Wiktor Stribiżew, Jul 17 '16 at 17:18
I know this can easily be done in Excel but would like to know if it is possible to do it in Notepad++ and I'm not familiar with using json. — DBHarper, Jul 23 '16 at 02:52
After your edit, it is much easier: `^(.+)\R+(.+)\R+(.+)\R+(.+)\R+(.+)` -> `$1\t$2\t$3\t$4\t$5` — Wiktor Stribiżew, Jul 23 '16 at 18:58
Thank you Wiktor. I am fairly new to all of this and I take it that this is to be put in the Replace field but I don't know what to put in the Search field. — DBHarper, Jul 23 '16 at 21:29
It converted the single column into five columns. Now I just need to convert the five columns back into a single column. — DBHarper, Jul 27 '16 at 05:51
Good, I posted an answer, please consider accepting it since it worked for you. Making the reverse is already another question, please post it with the input string, required output, the pattern you tried and brief description why it does not work. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Jul 30 '16 at 18:16
Solved. Thank you Wiktor. I will post a different question on how to reverse the process. — DBHarper, Jul 31 '16 at 06:49

Wiktor Stribiżew · Answer 1 · 2016-07-31T18:16:39.333

1

After your edit, the answer is easy: you need to capture 5 subsequent lines and replace linebreaks between them with a tab character.

Find what: ^(.+)\R+(.+)\R+(.+)\R+(.+)\R+(.+)
Replace with: $1\t$2\t$3\t$4\t$5

Where ^ matches the line start, (.+) matches and captures into a Group a non-empty line (replace + with * if empty lines are to be considered), \R+ matches 1 or more line breaks (be it a CRLF, CR or LF sequences).

In the replacement pattern, $n are backreferences to the corresponding group captured value.

edited Jul 31 '16 at 18:16

answered Jul 30 '16 at 18:15

Wiktor Stribiżew

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Glad it worked for you, please consider accepting the answer. – Wiktor Stribiżew Aug 23 '16 at 19:44

How to convert multiple repeating rows to columns and then from columns back to rows in Notepad++

1 Answers1