Find and replace using wildcard character in Notepad++

Question

I have very long list in this format:

<option value="adf">Option 1</option>
<option value="es3">Option 2</option>
<option value="34f">Option 3</option>

With Notpad++, how can I do a find and replace to change it to this format?:

<value="1">Option 1</option>
<value="1">Option 2</option>
<value="1">Option 3</option>

Solution

This replace should do it if I understand exactly what you want to accomplish:

Comments

[sean christe]

Hope it isn't XML or HTML since that would break it.

[MetaGuru]

Did you really mean to make all the values = 1 or are they suppose to = the number of the option, so in this case they would be 1, 2, 3 respectively?

[amiregelz]

@ioSamurai I thought it might have been a mistake too; it doesn't make much sense.

[xiamx]

It's not really a good idea to use regex on xml.. Ideally, feed the xml to a parser then regenerate it to the format that you desire. see: stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/…

[sean christe]

If the option numbe goes to multiple digits, change (\d) to (\d+)

[amiregelz]

No need to mess with the name of the option at all (e.g Option 1) - you only need to change the opening option tag, i.e replacing <option value=".*"> with <value="1">.

[sean christe]

that is true. I usually do very explicit regexes then genralize them down later.