regex search to find a string when it repeats X number of times

If you want to run a regular expression for a string which appears at least X times successively, you can run this search:

^(?!(.*?x){4})(?=.*x).*$

This search will find the string 'X', entered after the first ? and then at the end of the second parentheses, whenever it appears Y number of times successively, Y being one less than the number entered in the curly brackets.

add page numbering in NotePad++

If you have a text file in NotePad++ that has markers for page breakers, but you need to add in page numbering, follow these steps:

1. Begin by numbering each line so that you can sort them in their original order. Select all, and then go to Edit . . . Column Editor.

2. Select the radio button for 'Number to Insert', and then enter '1' for the 'Initial number' and 'Increase by' fields. Check off the option for 'Leading zeros'.

3. Next run a regular expression find and replace search to move the line numbering to the end of each line:

FIND: ([0-9]{2})(.*$)

REPLACE: \2\1

This searches for any two digit number, and then also selects all of the text to the end of the line - this is what $ is used for in regex. The backslashes followed by numbers reference each regex search in parentheses in the FIND search. Putting them in reverse numerical order will flip the original text order.

4. Now sort all of the lines so the markers at the beginning of each line are grouped together. Go to TextFX . . . TextFX Tools . . . 'Sort lines case insensitive (at column)' with 'Sort ascending' selected.

5. Now just select the lines beginning with the PAGE marker and repeat step 2. To select the lines hold down ALT + SHIFT and use the down arrow key.

6. Use another regex search to move the original numbering for all lines back to the start of each line:

FIND: (^.*)([0-9]{2})

REPLACE: \2\1

. . . the caret '^' is used in regular expression language to find the beginning of a line.

7. Relocate the numbers before each PAGE marker:

FIND: ([0-9]{1})(PAGE)

REPLACE: \2\1

8. Resort the lines:

9. Finally simply remove the line numbers:

FIND: \r\n[0-9]{2}

REPLACE: \r\n

regex to move string to the end of a line

Here's a demonstration of how to run a regular expression search which will take a string at the beginning of a line of text and move it to the end of the line. This search:

(\r\s{3,})([0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2})(.*$)

. . . finds a new line which begins with at least three whitespaces, ((\r\s{3,}) , a time code in the format ##:## ([0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}), and then captures all text until the end of the line.

Then replace the text with:

\1 \3 \2

. . . the first string, followed by the third string in the parentheses, and ending the with second string.