Split address string with text and number

kongharald · Post by **kongharald** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 7:21 pm

I have a file with addresses with a format like this

Bigstreet 11a
East Old avenue 2b
Mean Street 4
Shopping district 1, 2b

Is there a Reg.exp that may insert a tab before the first digit in each line?

Post by **MudGuard** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 8:45 pm

Search for
^([^0-9]*)([0-9])
replace by
\1\t\2

^([^0-9]*)([0-9]) searches for the beginning of the line, followed by any number of non-digits (remembering all those non-digits) followed by a digit (remembering this digit).

\1 is the first remembered part (i.e. the non-digits), \t the tab character, \2 the second remembered part (i.e. the digit)

ben_josephs · Post by **ben_josephs** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:42 pm

MudGuard wrote:Search for
^([^0-9]*)([0-9])
replace by
\1\t\2

This assumes you are using Posix regular expression syntax:

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SteveH · Post by **SteveH** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 8:18 am

One issue with this solution (I came up with something similar) is that it retains a space before the inserted tab character. I wasn't sure if kongharald just wanted a tab inserted or the space before the digit replaced.