Search & replace with wildcards and variable length strings in Notepad++

Question

I am trying to edit a series of strings in Notepad++ using search & replace. What I'd like to do is to search for a particular piece of HTML code, then delete a portion of it. The challenging part is that one word in the code segment varies.

For example, I'd like to find every instance of this:

/arama.php?shoes=bile 

(where "shoes" could be any word of varying length - sandals, boots, slippers, flipflops, etc.)

and replace it with just

/shoes=bile 

(where "shoes" is whatever the original word in that position of the string is).

Is this possible? Any ideas how?

Solution

you can use regex for this as others have suggested:

try something like

/arama.php\?([a-zA-Z]+)=([a-zA-Z]+)

replacement line would look something like

/\1=\2

Comments

[ratchet freak]

I thought np++ could handle full regex...

[mtone]

Learn searching with regular expressions, aka regex.

[Scoop]

Any good ideas of where to go to learn more? I tried using an asterisk (*) as a wildcard, but that doesn't work. I've used '?' in other programs, but when the string is of variable length, that doesn't work. I've tried searching the web for solutions, but haven't found anything, which is why I posted here.

[slhck]

Wouldn't removing arama.php? from the string suffice?

[BLSully]

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