Find and Replace Utility. Regular Expressions. Wildcards.

paulstar

I'm using an (excellent) program called fnr.exe. It opens files (.htms in my case) in a folder and finds and replaces text within the files. I have files containing text of this nature:

Camping in 2016 France
Camping in 2017 France
Camping in 2018 France
Camping in 2019 France

which I want to change to:

Caravanning in 2016 Italy
Caravanning in 2017 Italy
Caravanning in 2018 Italy
Caravanning in 2019 Italy

With the "Use regular Expressions" box ticked, fnr.exe finds all of these with the Find string Camping in 201?[0-9] France.

But what do I put in the Replace field? I've tried loads of variations such as Caravanning in 201? Italy but it refuses to copy the variable digit (6, 7, 8, 9) and I end up with "Caravanning in 201? Italy" in every file.

How do I get it to copy the variable digit - the wildcard - across?

(I can't do two replaces, one for "Camping in 201" and another for "France", as France appears elsewhere in the text and must not be changed. I actually have a lot more than 4 strings to do!)

Strider590

It does what?

Does it replace file names? or does it open text files and change text within?

Both are completely different.


And what about file extensions?

paulstar

Strider590 wrote: »

It does what?

Does it replace file names? or does it open text files and change text within?

Both are completely different.


And what about file extensions?

It opens files and changes text within. I'm using it on .htm files. I've edited the OP to include this clarification.

Strider590

Ok, so instead try doing it individually for every year and do the process several times instead of once. In other words do away with the wildcard thing.

The other option depending on how many files, is to open them all in Notepad and do it manually with CTRL+H, just type "camping" in the top box and "caravanning" in the lower box and watch it go, it wouldn't take very long at all unless you've got 1000 files to edit.

SalsaDanca

You can use the $ sign to refer to different parts of the text that matched the regular expression that you used in your search. Have a look at these webpages:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/az24scfc(v=vs.110).aspx#substitutions

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ewy2t5e0(v=vs.110).aspx

It's a long time since I've used regular expressions for this type of thing, so I can't tell you exactly how to do it. It might be as simple as "Caravanning in 201$1 in Italy", or you might need to experiment a bit to find the right solution.

paulstar

SalsaDanca wrote: »

You can use the $ sign to refer to different parts of the text that matched the regular expression that you used in your search. Have a look at these webpages:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/az24scfc(v=vs.110).aspx#substitutions

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ewy2t5e0(v=vs.110).aspx

It's a long time since I've used regular expressions for this type of thing, so I can't tell you exactly how to do it. It might be as simple as "Caravanning in 201$1 in Italy", or you might need to experiment a bit to find the right solution.

Salsa, you're a star.

Find Camping in 201(\d+) France Replace Caravanning in 201$1 Italy worked like a charm.

Very much appreciated, thank you.