CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regexnotepad++
Asterdahl
Asterdahl

Reputation: 85

RegEx Search (Notepad++) - Return from character to character without specified characters between

Is it possible in RegEx; and if so how, to search from character to character only if specified characters are not included between them.

For instance:

Function
    {
        Parameter Parameter_Name
    }

Function
    {
    }

I want to run a search starting with "Function" and ending with "}" where "Parameter" does not appear between the two.

For reference, I am using Notepad++'s RegEx search, and I have ".matches newline" enabled, and have no trouble performing other multiline searches, I'm just not sure of the syntax.

I tried something along the lines of 

Function.*!?Parameter.*?\}

But this search just caught everything between Function and the last "{" in the file. Meanwhile the below will always stop at the first "}" character.

Function.*?\}

What am I missing?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 59

Answers (1)

Pshemo
Pshemo

Reputation: 124225

Naive answer but hire it goes

 Function(?![^}]*\bParameter\b)[^}]*?\}

I assume that:

  • your Function can't contain nested {...} blocks (at least no nested })
  • Parameter is separate word, so Parameter_Name will not be counted as Parameter.

(?!...) part is negative-look-ahead.

Function(?![^}]*\bParameter\b) checks if after Function there is no Parameter which has no } before it. In other words it can have any other character beside } before which means that this Parameter will not be outside of currently checked Function{...} range. This means that negative-look-ahead will check only until it will find first } or end of your text.

Upvotes: 1

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