Notepad++ regular expression find and replace $_REQUEST with $_GET but a more secure

Question

What I am doing is replacing, in a large program, all $_REQUEST['var'] and mysql_escape_string($_REQUEST['var']) with either the 1st or 2nd line below the dotted line.

Now, I have figured out this much of the regular expression but I would like to make it simpler. Instead of having to run the top one first then the 2nd one I would like to just run one all together. I tried this but it did not work.

(mysql_escape_string\()*$_REQUEST\[\'([^']*)\'\]\)(\)*)

So below is what works but again have to do it twice.

$_REQUEST\[\'([^']*)\'\]

mysql_escape_string\($_REQUEST\[\'([^']*)\'\]\)

---

(isset($_GET['\1'])?mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['\1']):false)

(isset($_POST['\1'])?mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['\1']):false)

============================ Update: Yeah, after some research I figured out that Notepad++ does not support most regular expressions. I guess one additional step can not hurt a person. It's just laziness.

*NOTE: BUT if anyone wants to try feel free to comment. At least it is just 2 steps and not 20.

Answer 1

I would have said to use this regex:

mysql_escape_string\(\$_REQUEST\['[^']*'\]\)|\$_REQUEST\['[^']*'\]

...but it appears Notepad++ doesn't support alternation (that's the pipe: '|') in regex searches. In fact, there seem to be a lot of basic regex features that aren't supported. This should be a simple task, but I can't get it to work at all in NPP. I don't see how that editor can claim to support regex search at all. (And yes, I know it inherited that feature from SciTE--I'm disappointed in them, too.)

If you want real regex search-and-replace in your editor, I suggest you shell out for EditPad Pro. Its regex flavor is one of the best in existence--in terms of both power and features, I would rate it second only to Perl. Its syntax is highly compatible, too; for example, it supports all of the variations in named-capture syntax found in Perl, Python, PHP and .NET.

Disclaimer: I have no financial or personal stake in EditPad Pro; I just use it and can't imagine life without it. :D

Answer 2

notepad++ does support alternation, but the alternating terms have to be enclosed in [ ]'s. eg:

(www.mysite.co.uk\/[\/\w]*\/[-.\w]*.[html|css]:)[\s]*.*[/|'|"]([-\w.]*.[gif|jpg|ico]).*

Which is the regex I was working on when I searched for notepad++ and alternation.

**EDIT: Ok, it's not working right, I take it back. It's treating the characters within the []'s as a class.