Menu
Does Notepad++ support non-greedy regular expressions?
For example for text:
abcxadc I want to get parts using pattern:
a.+c And now I get whole string instead of 2 parts. I tried to use the '?' operator but without success.
899
Using Regex to find and replace text in Notepad++ In all examples, use select Find and Replace (Ctrl + H) to replace all the matches with the desired string or (no string). And also ensure the 'Regular expression' radio button is set.
A non-greedy match means that the regex engine matches as few characters as possible—so that it still can match the pattern in the given string. For example, the regex 'a+?' will match as few 'a' s as possible in your string 'aaaa' . Thus, it matches the first character 'a' and is done with it.
The default behavior of regular expressions is to be greedy. That means it tries to extract as much as possible until it conforms to a pattern even when a smaller part would have been syntactically sufficient. Instead of matching till the first occurrence of '>', it extracted the whole string.
Update: from version 5.9 (build time Mar, 31. 2011), Notepad++ supports non greedy regular expressions (new scintilla 2.5).
101
I did the following with Notepad++ V6.1.5 (It has now PCRE regex engine):
a.+?c
and got 2 parts (abc and adc)
Lazy(non-greedy) searches are now possible.
23
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With
