Question

I am using Notepad++. I am having some entries as below:

001:0> class Item
002:1>   def initialize(id)
003:2>     @id = id
004:2>   end

Now is there anyway to quickly remove those 001:0>,002:1>... in one shot and get them as below:

 class Item
   def initialize(id)
     @id = id
   end

Thanks

Answer 1

Use the Replace dialog, and check the box Regular Expressions at the bottom.

Find:

^(\d+?:\d+?>)(.*)

RegexBuddy’s Explanation tree:

• Options: ^ and $ match at line breaks
• Assert position at the beginning of a line (at beginning of the string
  or after a line break character) «^»
• Match the regular expression below and capture its match into
  backreference number 1 «(\d+?:\d+?>)»
• Match a single digit 0..9 «\d+?»
• Between one and unlimited times, as few times as possible,
  expanding as needed (lazy) «+?»
• Match the character “:” literally «:»
• Match a single digit 0..9 «\d+?»
• Between one and unlimited times, as few times as possible,
  expanding as needed (lazy) «+?»
• Match the character “>” literally «>»
• Match the regular expression below and capture its match into
  backreference number 2 «(.*)»
• Match any single character that is not a line break character «.*»
• Between zero and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving
  back as needed (greedy) «*»

Replace:

\2

This replaces the entire match with the content of capture group 2 (see above)

Click Replace All

Note that the regular expression for the find portion will also match numbers in the format 00:0>, 0000:00>, 00000000:00000000>, and so forth. If that won’t work for you, change the regular expression to:

 ^(\d{3}+:\d>)(.*)