Multi line search and replace tool [closed]

Answer 1

The best tool I've found is a piece of freeware called BK ReplaceEm. The interface takes a bit of getting used to, but it's worth learning how to use it. The tool is very powerful and allows you to do multi-line replaces with or without regular expressions.

Answer 2

Visual Studio Code has an exceptionally good “global” search and replace. I just used it for multiple multi-line changes on numerous files, including some Regexp search with capture and replace.

• Open VS Code
• File → Open Folder, open the folder your files reside in
• Open a file and select the text you want to replace
• CTRL + SHIFT + H to open Search & Replace
• If you selected a text it will auto-fill, even multi line. Otherwise enter the text, use SHIFT + Enter to insert newlines, and optionally enable Regexp.
• Enter the replacement text
• Press Enter to start the search
• Click on change-items to preview the changes side by side
• Use the Replace All button (CTRL + ALT + Enter) to apply and save the changes

Answer 3

sed will do what you want.

See the FAQ entry about exactly this here http://sed.sourceforge.net/sedfaq4.html#s4.23.3

If you need to match a static block of text (which may occur any number of times throughout a file), where the contents of the block are known in advance, then this script is easy to use

Sed is available for Windows. See http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/sed.htm

Answer 4

I am always perplex when people ask for tools without telling for which platform(s) they need them... In these cases, I suppose it is, by default, for Windows...

There are a number of search/replace tools available for Windows, more or less powerful, lot of them free.
Currently, I use the Search/Replace module of FileMenu Tools, surprisingly powerful (you can use regular expressions), coming with lot of other goodies.
I have also RJL Soft's Simple Search-Replace (no REs), TortoiseSVN author's grepWin, supporting regexes and a good number of options, and there are some others I used in the past.

PS.: I forgot. Simple Search-Replace won't do multi-line replaces. Neither FileMenu Tools, apparently. grepWin can do (using \r\n for example). I do recall such free tools with multi-line search/replace fields, but I don't have their names at hand.

Answer 5

#see docs at the bottom 
use strict;
use warnings;
use Cwd;

use File::Find;

my $search_patternFilePath=$ARGV[0] ;
my $replace_patternFilePath =$ARGV[1];
my $file_pattern = $ARGV[2];

# Usage

(@ARGV == 3 ) || die ("Usage: FindAndReplace.pl pathToFileContaingTheMultiLineSearchText FullPathToFileContainingMultiLineReplaceText FilePattern . Example: perl MultiLineFindAndReplace.pl \"D:\Opera\New Folder\search.txt\" \"D:\Opera\replace.txt\" bak");



find(\&d, cwd);

sub d {
my $file = $File::Find::name;
$file =~ s,/,\\,g;

return unless -f $file;
return unless $file =~ /$file_pattern/;

my $searchPatternString = &slurpFile ( $search_patternFilePath ) ; 
my $replacePatternString = &slurpFile ( $replace_patternFilePath ) ; 
my $fileStr = &slurpFile ( $file ) ; 

$fileStr =~ s/$searchPatternString/$replacePatternString/igo ; 
open(FILEHANDLE,">$file") || die "cannot open output file";
print (FILEHANDLE "$fileStr");
close FILEHANDLE ;

}

sub slurpFile 
{
my $file = shift ;
print "\$file is $file" ;
local( $/, *FILE ) ; 
open (FILE , $file) or 
die "Cannot find $file !!! " ; 
my $fileString = <FILE>; #slurp the whole file into one string !!! 
close FILE ;
return $fileString ;
}
#Purpose : performs recursive find and replace based on pеrl regexes from the current directory
#the search and replace is case insensitive
#Usage
#perl MultiLineFindAndReplace.pl "D:\Opera\New Folder\search.txt" "D:\Opera\replace.txt" bak

Answer 6

I'm not allowed to comment, but the accepted solution cites an example that seems broken. Line 18 should be:

s,[/\.*[],\\&,g

Not

s,[/\[.*],\\&,g

The latter will complain with modern sed (or 'gsed' if you're in *BSD) about an unterminated expression on line 18.