How to search for strings that include newlines in Notepad++

Question

I'm going through subtitle files so there are stuff like

442
00:24:18,017 --> 00:24:20,551
Now you're just looking
for a scapegoat.

and I'm wondering how I can search for "just looking for a" and have it find that. Right now "you're just looking" gets a match, "for a scapegoat" gets a match, "looking for" does not get a match.

I've tried putting the search mode to normal/extended

Solution

If you use Extended search, you can search for \r\n as a newline when your document was created on windows. When it was created on linux, it is most likely only \n

So if you search for:

just looking\r\nfor a

It should find you the matches. To make exactly sure what to search for, press the ¶ button in the toolbar to enable showing all special chars.

Any CR is found searching for \r and any LF is found searching for \n.

Look closely for any spaces at the beginning and end of the line and search for those too.

Comments

[user1021085]

I want to search different quotes and won't be sure where they did their lines breaks. Is there a way to just say "search this string, match even if it's broken up by new lines" or something?

[LPChip]

For that you will need RegEx, and check the option at the right to search past linebreaks.

[user1021085]

I'm sorry how would that look like?

[LPChip]

I'm starting to think you are trying to do something with the wrong kind of tools or using the wrong method here. What is it exactly that you want to achieve in the end?

[user1021085]

I want to be able to search through the subtitle files and find quotes (episode, context, etc)

[LPChip]

Then I would suggest to search/replace the entire file and remove all \r\n on lines. That would effectively merge all sentences to one sentence. You can then search freely.