Tagged Expressions and Carriage Returns with REs

gordonfj · Post by **gordonfj** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 3:35 pm

In this example text:

blah
A
A
yadda

Is it possible to search for the following:

\(A\)\n\1

Why is this RE invalid?

Bob Hansen · Post by **Bob Hansen** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 11:42 pm

From your RegEx:

\(A\)\n\1

What is the \1 for?
Trying to repeat A? So you are searching for A\nA, is that correct?
I don't think you can use \1 to include a \n with TextPad RegEx.

\(A\)\n

works OK by itself. Finds three lines unless you select to match case, and then it only finds 2 lines, just as it should.

If I use \1 as replacement for A\n, it works OK, I end up with AA\n, but it does not translate correctly in the search mode. Expression \1 cannot be found.

Post by **MudGuard** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 8:25 am

Textpad is quite weak on multiline RegExes.

(A)\1 finds AA as expected, but (A)\n\1 does not find A\nA as the \1 is in a different line as the ()

Workaround:
first, replace \n by a string not existing in the document, e.g. @@@

Then do your replacement searching for (A)@@@\1

When finished, replace your string from step 1 (@@@ in the example) by \n again.

gordonfj · Post by **gordonfj** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 9:29 am

Thanks for the help Muguard. Thats what I was expecting.
I'd like the RE handling in TP to be able to handle multiple lines.

Do you know if this is in the development pipeline?