how to find and replace such a case

Question

i have some text files in a pre-defined directory, the files end with *.edi Each of them refers in one separate line within itself:

data_file   file_n.data

I have to convert this line in every .edi file to sth like

data_file   'another_directory/file_n.data'

i will add 'another_directory/ and ' in the end, because the data will be in another directory. and I have such 200 .edi files files, making it tedious to handle them manually! any help from regexp? I use UltraEdit engine for regexp by the way.

a_dir/
   file1.edi
   file2.edi
   file3.edi
   ...

and each file refers in one line:

data file   file_n.data

becomes:--->

data_file   'another_directory/file_n.data'

Answer 1

Replace the space(s) by space(s) followed by another_directory/ using appropriate metacharacters and escaping for /.

Answer 2

ultraedit has find and replace in files. If you're in v13+ it also has PERL compatible regexes.

If you turn on PERL compatible regular expression you can use:

For Find What: " (file_\d+.data)" (without the double quotes)

For replace with: " 'another_directory\/$1'" (without the double quotes)

For old style UltraEdit syntax regular expressions use:

Find What: " ^(file_[0-9]+^.data^)"

Replace With: " 'another_directory/^1'"

(without the quotes but the leading whitespace is significant)

Answer 3

Just do a Replace in Files from the Search menu, using Perl Regular Expression Engine:

Find:

^(\s*data file\s+)(.+)$

Replace:

\1'another_directory/\2'

In Files/Types:

*.edi

Directory:

<whatever the directory with all your edi files is>

(tested in UltraEdit, works for me)

Answer 4

If I were using RegexBuddy's GREP tool, here's what I would do :

Match pattern:

^(data file\s{3})(file_n\.data)$

Options:

^$ match at line breaks.

Replace pattern:

\1'another_directory/\2'

I think UltraEdit should work pretty much the same.