CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regexvisual-studio-code
Daniel Kaplan
Daniel Kaplan

Reputation: 67420

Using a regex to append to the end of non-blank lines

I would think that this would be a common question, but I can't find anybody asking how to do this. There are people asking how to do the opposite (find blank lines) and add a <br><br> at the end of each one. For human readability, this document has blank lines between paragraphs.

(I don't want to replace the blank lines with <br><br>. I know this would achieve the same result, but for human readability and personal preference, I don't like how this makes the document one giant block of text.)

How can I write a regex that captures -- I don't know if this is the right word to use; maybe "groups"? -- the end of lines that aren't blank so that I can append to the end of them?

I am using Visual Studio code, so I'd like this to work in the search/replace box:

enter image description here

I'm assuming in the replacement box above, I'd need to say $some group number(s?), so I just said $x as a temporary placeholder. Here's what I've tried as search patterns:

^(?!:($))$
^(?!:(\S$))$
^(?!:([^\S]$))$
^(?!:([^\s]$))$
^(?!([^\S]+))$

All of these seem to grab the inverse of what I'm trying to find. I guess my strategy has been, between the beginning and end of the line, there shouldn't be only whitespace. But I'm pretty sure that's not what I'm saying.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 369

Answers (2)

Wiktor Stribiżew
Wiktor Stribiżew

Reputation: 626950

You can use

Find What:      (\S)[^\S\n]*(\n)
Replace With: $1<br><br>$2

NOTE: The above replacement will not add the <br>s at the end of the last line if it is not blank. If you need that, use

Find What:      (\S)[^\S\n]*$
Replace With: $1<br><br>

See the regex demo. The regex above matches the last non-whitespace char on a line (capturing it in Group 1 to keep it), then matches horizontal whitespace (if any) and then captures a line break that is also captured to keep in the output.

Details

  • (\S) - Group 1: any non-whitespace char
  • [^\S\n]* - zero or more horizontal whitespace chars
  • (\n) - Group 2: line break.
  • $ - end of a line (note that m flag (in its PCRE meaning) is always on, by default, in VSCode regex).

The replacement is $1<br><br>$2, Group 1 value + <br><br> + Group 2 value (if you use the first regex).

enter image description here

is changed into

enter image description here

Upvotes: 3

Mark
Mark

Reputation: 181639

This works to retain the spaces at the end of lines:

Find: (?<=^.*)(\S+.*)

Replace: $1<br><br>

enter image description here

Upvotes: 1

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