Moving the first x characters - 9 characters from the end
#1 : 18/12-21 15:37 RB
Posts: 3
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Hello All,
Wonder if someone can help me - I have tried to search through the forum, but can not find a similar issue :-(!. My problem is, have over a 1000 files - so doing it manually will be pain :-(. So I have files with the following structures: aaaaa - bbbbbbbbbb 01-01-21.txt aaaaaaaaaa - bbbbbbbbb - ccccccc 01-01-21.txt aaaaaaaa - bbbbb - cccc 01-01-21.txt aa - bbbb 01-01-21.txt aaaa - bbbbbb.txt I want to be able to move the aaaaa's to before the date or if there is no date right to end of the file. So they end up like this: bbbbbbbbbb - aaaaa - 01-01-21.txt bbbbbbbbb - ccccccc - aaaaaaaaaa - 01-01-21.txt bbbbb - cccc - aaaaaaaa - 01-01-21.txt bbbb - aa - 01-01-21.txt bbbbbb - aaaa - .txt I have tried many combinations of Move and Backwards but just can't get it to work. I am probably doing something really stupid. Thanks! |
#2 : 18/12-21 18:16 David Lee
Posts: 1125
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You need to use a Replace method with a Regular Expression...
Replace: ([^-]*- )(.*?)(( (\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{2}))|$) with: \2 - \1\5 Use regular expressions It was a bit tricky sorting out the nested parentheses around the date pattern in order to get the final spacing correct! |
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#3 : 19/12-21 03:15 RB
Posts: 3
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You know, David - I hate people like you - evil geniuses. I must have spent hours trying to get this to work and you responded in hours and works perfectly!
There is no way I could have done that! THANK YOU so much- you are a genius!! R |
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#4 : 19/12-21 12:09 David Lee
Posts: 1125
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Reply to #3:
Whilst it works perfectly - somehow I finished up with a redundant pair of parentheses (which just saves two copies of the unwanted string ("space + date") and the "? is unnecessary in this case. Should have been... Replace: ([^-]*- )(.*)( (\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{2})|$) with: \2 - \1\4 |
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#5 : 19/12-21 12:40 RB
Posts: 3
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Hahaha I was happy with the original post - again thank you so much David!
Genius and a perfectionist - what a combination! THANK YOU!! R |