Removing empty lines in Notepad++

Question

How can I replace empty lines in Notepad++? I tried a find and replace with the empty lines in the find, and nothing in the replace, but it did not work; it probably needs regex.

score 638 · Answer 1 · edited May 05 '17 at 16:02

638

There is now a built-in way to do this as of version 6.5.2

Edit -> Line Operations -> Remove Empty Lines or Remove Empty Lines (Containing Blank characters)

edited May 05 '17 at 16:02

Stevoisiak

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answered Jan 06 '14 at 15:39

Halfwarr

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Unfortunately this doesn't consider your selection, it will delete all the empty lines in the file even if you have selected only some of them. – Fabio says Reinstate Monica Oct 11 '16 at 11:53
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If this is a one-time operation, you can extract the selected lines to the new notepad++ tab and perform that operation there. Copy-paste procedure for 5seconds. Any other workaround that cannot be accomplished in that time is a waste in my opinion. But if you are doing that every day 100 times... – creed Oct 16 '18 at 10:17
I was using this (even assigned my shortcut), but it's a lot slower than option above, so use smartly... – Betlista Jun 09 '19 at 20:43

Brad · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-15T22:52:00.197

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You need something like a regular expression.

You have to be in Extended mode

If you want all the lines to end up on a single line use \r\n. If you want to simply remove empty lines, use \n\r as @Link originally suggested.

Replace either expression with nothing.

edited Apr 15 '19 at 22:52

answered Oct 05 '10 at 17:13

Brad

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Should first select 'extended` in search mode. – q0987 Apr 17 '12 at 15:47
It should be noted that replacing all on `\r\n\r\n` can cause 2 of your lines to be joined together. `23` Text on line 23!`\r\n` `24 \r\n` `25\r\n` `26`Line 26 text.`r\n` can be compressed to `23` Text on line 23!Line 26 text. – Robert Kaucher Jul 13 '12 at 14:33
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To get your lines not to be joined together you have to search for `\r\n\r\n` and replace with `\r\n`. – Robert Kaucher Jul 13 '12 at 14:48
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See @BoltClock's comment below. Also, if your file is saved with Unix line endings, you can convert it to Windows line endings in Edit > EOL Conversion > Windows Format before doing the find and replace. – Big McLargeHuge Aug 16 '12 at 15:51
11

If you wish to remove lines with only spaces and tabs or nothing try using regex replace to match `\r\n\W*\r\n` and replace with `\r\n` – Myster Apr 14 '14 at 02:25
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@Myster First thing to say I barely know regex, so apologize if I'm wrong. I think your suggestion wouldn't do the trick with many empty lines in a row, have you tested it and does it really works? – ST3 Aug 17 '15 at 12:31
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@ST3 hmm what was I thinking, This one is much better: `(\r\n|\r|\n)(\s*(\r\n|\r|\n))+` and replace with `\r\n` see it in action here: https://regex101.com/r/qD9dB1/1 – Myster Aug 17 '15 at 23:58
What on earth are you talking about when you say \n\r you do realise you have that backwards don't you? – barlop Mar 18 '18 at 04:48
@barlop, `\n\r` is for removing completely empty lines. for example `line 1\r\n\r\nline 3`: removing \n\r will leave you with `line 1\r\nline 3` – Brad Apr 15 '19 at 22:53

score 123 · Answer 3 · edited May 11 '12 at 00:19

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There is a plugin that adds a menu entitled TextFX. This menu, which houses a dizzying array of quick text editing options, gives a person the ability to make quick coding changes. In this menu, you can find selections such as Drop Quotes, Delete Blank Lines as well as Unwrap and Rewrap Text

Do the following:

TextFX > TextFX Edit > Delete Blank Lines
TextFX > TextFX Edit > Delete Surplus Blank Lines

edited May 11 '12 at 00:19

kolufild

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answered Oct 05 '10 at 17:44

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Not sure as of when, but it would seem that this plugin is installed by default now. Slightly off-topic, but one of the other incredibly useful features, under `TextFX > TextFX Tools`, is line sorting, optionally removing duplicates. Very handy way of doing a Unix `sort -u` on a Windows box without cygwin or unxutils or similar. – Cam Jackson Oct 06 '11 at 01:00
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[Here's a link to the TextFx Plugin.](http://sourceforge.net/projects/npp-plugins/files/TextFX/) I found it very useful. Use: `Settings > Import > plugin...` and find the dll file to install it. It becomes a menu item by `Plugins` – Nick Pickering Nov 02 '12 at 19:41
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will this work on all open documents, or one document at a time? – derelict May 31 '16 at 21:20

score 102 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 10 '14 at 12:49

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notepad++
Ctrl-H
Select Regular Expression
Enter ^[ \t]*$\r?\n into find what, leave replace empty. This will match all lines starting with white space and ending with carriage return (in this case a windows crlf)
Click the Find Next button to see for yourself how it matches only empty lines.

edited Jun 10 '14 at 12:49

Sameer

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answered Dec 28 '12 at 02:57

SleepyBoBos

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I had to use this method instead of some of the other methods to get it to easily work in a macro. Thank you. – Mafu Josh Oct 09 '14 at 15:32
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even shorter and also lesser replacements needed because of multiple empty lines will be replaced at once: ^\s*$\r?\n – njank Dec 16 '17 at 20:00
In notepad++ i used `(^[ \t]*$\s)\s*` in the find box and left replace empty. Works great. Thanks! – slyfox1186 Jun 20 '20 at 22:52
why does `^\s*$` work for multiple lines? shouldn't ^$ "restrict" it to one line? (@njank or anyone else) – Albin Dec 01 '20 at 22:56
Thanks for this regex expression, it worked well, but it took a while to complete execution. – abunickabhi Feb 04 '21 at 08:55
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@albin, this pattern is matching a (possibly blank) line followed by a (possible single carriage return and) newline. It's the combination of "more than one blank line" that gives it so much power. I used the suggestion from njank and specified Replace with \n -- this replaced multiple blank lines with a single blank line. – Lyle S. Jun 16 '23 at 23:57

score 41 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 25 '18 at 19:21

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Press ctrl + h (Shortcut for replace).
In the Find what zone, type ^\R ( for exact empty lines) or ^\h*\R ( for empty lines with blanks, only).
Leave the Replace with zone empty.
Check the Wrap around option.
Select the Regular expression search mode.
Click on the Replace All button.

answered Feb 25 '18 at 19:21

Alex Kulinkovich

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This worked for me without any issues or additional settings to change. Thanks! – Bonez024 Jul 30 '19 at 13:27
Except that it's shorter, what exactly is the difference to [SleepyBoBos's answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/14064039/2089396)? – Albin Nov 30 '20 at 14:18
@Albin, different regex: SleepyBoBos: ^[ \t]*$\r?\n This will match all lines starting with white space and ending with carriage return (in this case a windows crlf) My version: ^\R ( for exact empty lines) or ^\h*\R ( for empty lines with blanks, only). – Alex Kulinkovich Nov 30 '20 at 16:55
@Alex.K. that I understood, since it's already mentioned in the answers themselves. Sorry, should have been more specific: is there anything else in the white space but space and tab in `\h`? Also `\r?\n` already includes Win and Unix line breaks, whats the advantage of using `\R`? Are there "regular" use cases where you need it? – Albin Dec 01 '20 at 22:40

Saikat · Answer 6 · 2019-07-15T05:05:32.920

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You can follow the technique as shown in the following screenshot:

Find what: ^\r\n
Replace with: keep this empty
Search Mode: Regular expression
Wrap around: selected

NOTE: for *nix files just find by \n

edited Jul 15 '19 at 05:05

answered Jun 26 '18 at 10:53

Saikat

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works well (note: not for lines that includes any non-print characters like space or tab) – Albin Nov 30 '20 at 14:37
Loved it! This should have been the accepted answer. – afp_2008 Mar 22 '21 at 18:41

score 20 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 13 '15 at 10:44

20

This worked for me:

Press ctrl + h (Shortcut for replace)
Write one of the following regex in find what box. [\n\r]+$ or ^[\n\r]+
Leave Replace with box blank
In Search Mode, select Regex
Click on Replace All

Done!

answered Oct 13 '15 at 10:44

Kamal Nayan

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This is the only solution that did not screw up my huge .csv files. Thanks! – veuncent Aug 30 '17 at 14:30
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plus one because I finally know the shortcut for replace :-D – Betlista Jun 09 '19 at 20:49

score 15 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 05 '10 at 17:16

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In notepad++ press CTRL+H , in search mode click on the "Extended (\n, \r, \t ...)" radio button then type in the "Find what" box: \r\n (short for CR LF) and leave the "Replace with" box empty..

Finally hit replace all

answered Oct 05 '10 at 17:16

Bassem

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actually, I tried it, see my clarification in my answer. *You were on to something!* – Brad Oct 05 '10 at 17:20
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This assumes the line endings are Windows (CRLF) though, if your file is saved with Unix line endings search only for `\n`. – BoltClock Oct 05 '10 at 17:35
@Brad: I wrote in between the () "short for CR LF", didn't want codetrek to think \n is CR, hence the edit. – Bassem Oct 05 '10 at 17:37
Wrong answer, puts all lines in one line. – m0skit0 Jul 13 '17 at 12:50

Praboda · Answer 9 · 2019-07-17T04:07:48.840

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1) Ctrl + H ( Or Search Replace..) to open Replace window.

2) Select 'Search Mode' 'Regular expression'

3) In 'Find What' type ^(\s*)(.*)(\s*)$ & in 'Replace With' type \2

^ - Matches start of line character
(\s*) - Matches empty space characters
(.*) - Matches any characters
(\s*) - Matches empty spaces characters
$ - Matches end of line character
\2 - Denotes the matching contend of the 2nd bracket

Refer https://www.rexegg.com/regex-quickstart.html for more on regex.

edited Jul 17 '19 at 04:07

answered Jul 17 '19 at 03:59

Praboda

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Please note: This does not only replace empty lines, it replaces e.g. indents (tab and space) as well – Albin Nov 30 '20 at 14:23

score 13 · Answer 10 · answered May 10 '14 at 18:10

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You can search for the following regex: ^(?:[\t ]*(?:\r?\n|\r))+ and replace it with empty field

answered May 10 '14 at 18:10

Ya Basha

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score 13 · Answer 11 · answered Oct 05 '10 at 17:26

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Well I'm not sure about the regex or your situation..

How about CTRL+A, Select the TextFX menu -> TextFX Edit -> Delete Blank Lines and viola all blank line gone.

A side note - if the line is blank i.e. does not contain spaces, this will work

answered Oct 05 '10 at 17:26

Ahmad

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score 11 · Answer 12 · answered Aug 08 '11 at 16:48

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Ctrl+H.

find - \r\r replace with - \r.

answered Aug 08 '11 at 16:48

mahesh adepu

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This works for me, removing extra line, in the sense of finding double \r replace with single \r. Thanks!! – genpet Jun 03 '12 at 01:59
This worked well, however I found that I needed to run it several times in my document before all instances of \r\r were gone. I'm unsure why. – Hawkwing Aug 21 '13 at 16:59

score 7 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 17 '12 at 08:08

This obviously does not work if the blank lines contain tabs or blanks. Many web pages (e.g. http://www.guardian.co.uk/) contain these white lines, as a result of a faulty HTML editor.

Remove white space using regular expression as follows:

change pattern: [\t ]+$ into nothing.

where [\t ] matches either tab or space. '+' matches one or more occurrences, and '$' marks the end of line.

Then use notepad++/textFX to remove single or extra empty lines. Be sure that these blank lines are not significant in the given context.

score 5 · Answer 14 · answered Dec 16 '14 at 03:29

5

enter image description here

Sometimes \n\r etc not work, here to figure it out, what your actually regular expression should be.

Advantage of this trick: If you want to replace in multiple file at once, you must need this method. Above will not work...

answered Dec 16 '14 at 03:29

Wasim A.

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score 4 · Answer 15 · edited Jan 30 '13 at 10:09

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Edit >> Blank Operations >> Trim Leading and Trailing Spaces (to remove black tabs and spaces in empty lines)
Ctrl + H to get replace window and replace pattern: ^\r\n with nothing (select regular expression)

Note: step 1 will remove your code intendation done via tabs and blank spaces

edited Jan 30 '13 at 10:09

andr

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answered Jan 30 '13 at 09:12

Adeeb

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score 4 · Answer 16 · answered Mar 20 '13 at 08:34

CTRL+A, Select the TextFX menu -> TextFX Edit -> Delete Blank Lines as suggested above works.

But if lines contains some space, then move the cursor to that line and do a CTRL + H. The "Find what:" sec will show the blank space and in the "Replace with" section, leave it blank. Now all the spaces are removed and now try CTRL+A, Select the TextFX menu -> TextFX Edit -> Delete Blank Lines

score 4 · Answer 17 · answered Feb 10 '15 at 21:33

4

/n/r assumes a specific type of line break. To target any blank line you could also use:

^$

This says - any line that begins and then ends with nothing between. This is more of a catch-all. Replace with the same empty string.

answered Feb 10 '15 at 21:33

AshBrad

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score 3 · Answer 18 · answered May 31 '16 at 09:05

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I did not see the combined one as answer, so search for ^\s+$ and replace by {nothing}

^\s+$ means
  ^ start of line
  \s+ Matches minimum one whitespace character (spaces, tabs, line breaks)
  $ until end of line

answered May 31 '16 at 09:05

user2056154

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if you want multiple lines you can try: `^\s+^(\S)` and replace with `\1`. – jiggunjer Nov 03 '17 at 05:57

score 3 · Answer 19 · answered Jul 06 '21 at 11:20

This pattern is tested in Notepad++ v8.1.1

It replaces all spaces/tabs/blank lines before and after each row of text.

It shouldn't mess with anything in the middle of the text.

Find: ^(\s|\t)+|(\s|\t)+$

Replace: leave this blank


Before:
_____________________________________
\tWORD\r\n
\r\n
\tWORD\s\tWORD\s\t\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
WORD\s\s\tWORD\t\sWORD\s\r\n 
\t\r\n
\s\s\s\r\n
WORD\s\sWORD\s\s\t\r\n

____________________________________


After:
_____________________________________
WORD\r\n
WORD\s\tWORD\r\n
WORD\s\s\tWORD\t\sWORD\r\n
WORD\s\sWORD
_____________________________________

score 2 · Answer 20 · answered Apr 29 '14 at 14:27

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A few of the above expressions and extended expressions did not work for me, but the regular expression "$\n$" did.

answered Apr 29 '14 at 14:27

Chris

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score 1 · Answer 21 · answered Jul 03 '12 at 10:00

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An easy alternative for removing white space from empty lines:

TextFX>TextFX Edit> Trim Trailing Spaces

This will remove all trailing spaces, including trailing spaces in blank lines. Make sure, no trailing spaces are significant.

answered Jul 03 '12 at 10:00

poisson

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score 1 · Answer 22 · edited Jul 12 '19 at 14:37

1

this work for me:

SEARCH:^\r  
REPLACE:            (empty)

edited Jul 12 '19 at 14:37

Jeremy W

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answered Jul 12 '19 at 13:54

Rafael Marques

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This will not work for linux eol `\n` and windows eol `\r\n` – Toto Jul 15 '19 at 10:04

Removing empty lines in Notepad++

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