Notepad++ Find/Replace Regex Help

Question

I am having issues doing a string replacement in Notepad++, and need some help.

My file:

LastName,(tab)FirstName[optional]MiddleName

Some times there is data that has a middle name, sometimes not.

Public,JohnQ.
Doe,John
Clinton,WilliamJefferson

would be:

Public(tab)John(tab)Q
Doe(tab)John
Clinton(tab)William(tab)Jefferson

I want to split it out into this:

LastName(tab)FirstName(tab)MiddleName

Answer 1

Thanks for adding the sample input. It helps immensely to have that around. Try this and see if it does what you want.

Find, making sure Match case is checked:

([A-Z][a-z]*),([A-Z][a-z]*)(.*)

Replace with:

\1(tab)\2(tab)\3

Of course, (tab) is actually a tab character that you have to place in the replacement string yourself.

Answer 2

An ugly regex like this works for me on the example you've provided:

(\w+),(\w+?)(([A-Z]\w*\.?)?)\n

replace with

\1\t\2\t\3\n

Note:

• This only works if the middle name starts with a letter in the AZ. You might be able to replace [AZ] with [[:upper:]] if notepad++ supports it (I don't know).
• I need that second bracket around the middle name part because I need to match at least an empty string when there is no middle name.