Re: [libreoffice-users] Find/Replace Regex

On 2013-11-07 18:23, Brian Barker wrote:
> At 16:55 07/11/2013 +1300, Steve Edmonds wrote:
> > I am trying to find and replace some text with regex in calc. Can 
> > anyone help with how I make it non-greedy.
>
> I think the answer is that you don't: you must find a way of 
> constructing a suitable expression despite such expressions being greedy.
>
> > I tried \([:digit:].*?[:digit:]\) in place of 
> > \([:digit:].*[:digit:]\) but both are greedy. When the following 
> > (12-34-23) cat (233) is in a selected cell it replaces both instances 
> > between ().
>
> By the way, I don't understand your ".*?" - do you perhaps mean either 
> ".*" or ".?" ?
>
> I'm afraid you've fallen into the common trap of attempting to define 
> your problem by quoting only expressions that *don't* work!  Which 
> parenthesised string do you want to match?  I'm guessing the first.  
> But what exactly are the characteristics of the strings you want to 
> match?  And the ones you want not to match?
>
> Is the target string always at the beginning?  Try:
> \<\([^\)]*\)
>
> Is the target string always digits-hyphen-digits-hyphen-digits? Try:
> \([:digit:]+-[:digit:]+-[:digit:]+\)
> or:
> \(\d+-\d+-\d+\)
>
> Do you want to match the second string instead? Try:
> \([:digit:]+\)
> or:
> \(\d+\)
>
> Depending on exactly what you want to match and to avoid matching, you 
> may have to do something different.
>
> I trust this helps.
>
> Brian Barker
Thanks for the replies.
 Sorry I am not that clear now I read it again. In non-LO regex I would 
use the following (ignoring the quotes)
\(\d.*\d\) to find "(12-34-23) cat (239)" in a string (12-34-23) cat 
(233) the .* is greedy and gobbles everything between the (1 and 9). the 
? after the .*, i.e. .*? would be non-gready and would match (12-34-23) 
and (239) without including the cat. In LO you use [:digit:] in place of \d.

Urmas, if you have "(12-34-23) cat (239)" in a cell in calc and search 
for \([:digit:].*?[:digit:]\) and replace with ww are you saying you get 
"ww cat ww" in the cell, ignoring "", i.e. 2 substitutions.
Steve

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