Question

I have a list (in a .txt file) which I’d like to quickly convert to JavaScript Syntax, so I want to take the following:

AliceBlue
AntiqueWhite
Aqua
Aquamarine
Azure
Beige
Bisque
Black
BlanchedAlmond

and convert it to an array literal…

var myArray = ["AliceBlue", "AntiqueWhite", ... ]

I have the list in notepad++ and I need a reg expression to add the " at the start of the line and ", at the end and remove the line break… does anyone have a quick fix to do this? I’m terrible with RegEx.

I often have to perform such tasks so to know how to do this would be a great benefit to me. Many thanks

Answer 1

You won’t be able to do it in a single replacement; you’ll have to perform a few steps. Here’s how I’d do it:

1. Find (in regular expression mode):

   (.+)
   

   Replace with:

   "\1"
   

   This adds the quotes:

   "AliceBlue"
   "AntiqueWhite"
   "Aqua"
   "Aquamarine"
   "Azure"
   "Beige"
   "Bisque"
   "Black"
   "BlanchedAlmond"
   

2. Find (in extended mode):

   \r\n
   

   Replace with (with a space after the comma, not shown):

   , 
   

   This converts the lines into a comma-separated list:

   "AliceBlue", "AntiqueWhite", "Aqua", "Aquamarine", "Azure", "Beige", "Bisque", "Black", "BlanchedAlmond"
   

3. Add the var myArray = assignment and braces manually:

   var myArray = ["AliceBlue", "AntiqueWhite", "Aqua", "Aquamarine", "Azure", "Beige", "Bisque", "Black", "BlanchedAlmond"];