Begin each new line with a character (unless it already begins with that character) in Notepad++.

Question

Hello all,

I've got some configuration files with hundreds of lines of data each.

I'd like to begin each line (after the carriage return) with a pound sign ('#') unless it's already beginning with a pound sign. I don't want to do a find+replace because I've got other commented parts of the file that aren't the beginning of a line.

So for example, this:

Some data #some comment
Some more data #some other comment
Even more data
#some line comment

would turn into:

#Some data #some comment
#Some more data #some other comment
#Even more data
#some line comment

Answer 1

Use the Search -> Replace feature, but put it in Regular Expression mode and match on line beginnings:

Find What:    ^([^#].*)
Replace With: #\1

This will match a line and everything in it, put that in \1, and then replace it with a # followed by what was put in \1 (the entire line).

Answer 2

Try find and replace with this regex (in regex mode):

^([^#])

and replace all with #\1. (Edited with Dav's feedback - thanks!)

Answer 3

1. Change the Language to Perl (Alt, L, P, DOWN)
2. Select All (CTRL-A)
3. Block Comment (CTRL-Q)
4. Change Language back

Edit: never mind. Won't ignore already commented lines. Oh well.