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michael.l | 1 Jul 2008 03:50
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How to apply a list of regex replaces to multiple files?

I've browsed the messages here and have googled but don't see a clear
solution yet. I have about 900 documents to which I need to apply a
list of maybe 40 separate regex search and replaces. I would like to
feed a list of the regex expressions and replacements to emacs and
have it applied to a directory of the files. Any solutions? Keyboard
macros don't seem like the right solution....
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Xah | 2 Jul 2008 01:25
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Re: How to apply a list of regex replaces to multiple files?

On Jun 30, 6:50 pm, "michael.l" <michael.lom... <at> gmail.com> wrote:
>... I have about 900 documents to which I need to apply a
> list of maybe 40 separate regex search and replaces. I would like to
> feed a list of the regex expressions and replacements to emacs and
> have it applied to a directory of the files. Any solutions? Keyboard
> macros don't seem like the right solution....

if you want to do it in Python, here's the full script:

http://xahlee.org/perl-python/findreplace_multi_pairs.html

if you want to do it in Perl, here's the full script:

http://xahlee.org/perl-python/find_replace_perl.html

If you want to do it in emacs, it's even easier.

If you only have 1 single find-replace pair, then it's is build in.
Just go to dired, mark the files, type Q (which calls dired-do-query-
replace-regexp). Aften done, type ibuffer then type “* U” to mark all
unsaved, then “S” to save them all, type “D” to close all opened
files. For some full detailed tutorial, see
 http://xahlee.org/emacs/find_replace_inter.html

If you have multiple pairs of find-replace, then you need a script.
Like this:

; open a file, process it, save, close it
(defun my-process-file (fpath)
  "process the file at fullpath fpath ..."
(Continue reading)

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Lennart Borgman (gmail | 1 Jul 2008 10:38
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Re: How to apply a list of regex replaces to multiple files?

michael.l wrote:
> I've browsed the messages here and have googled but don't see a clear
> solution yet. I have about 900 documents to which I need to apply a
> list of maybe 40 separate regex search and replaces. I would like to
> feed a list of the regex expressions and replacements to emacs and
> have it applied to a directory of the files. Any solutions? Keyboard
> macros don't seem like the right solution....

Sounds like the best would be writing a small elisp function to do the job.
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Phil Carmody | 1 Jul 2008 09:33
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Re: How to apply a list of regex replaces to multiple files?

"michael.l" <michael.lommel <at> gmail.com> writes:
> I've browsed the messages here and have googled but don't see a clear
> solution yet. I have about 900 documents to which I need to apply a
> list of maybe 40 separate regex search and replaces. I would like to
> feed a list of the regex expressions and replacements to emacs and
> have it applied to a directory of the files. Any solutions? Keyboard
> macros don't seem like the right solution....

Emacs is an interactive editor, most of the time in order
to achieve some modification of a file, you need to interact
with it.

Have you considered simply using `find' and `sed' (or even 
'perl') from the command line instead of an interactive
editor. They sound more like the right tool for the job.

Phil
--

-- 
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all.
-- Microsoft voice recognition live demonstration
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Tim X | 1 Jul 2008 09:01

Re: How to apply a list of regex replaces to multiple files?

"michael.l" <michael.lommel <at> gmail.com> writes:

> I've browsed the messages here and have googled but don't see a clear
> solution yet. I have about 900 documents to which I need to apply a
> list of maybe 40 separate regex search and replaces. I would like to
> feed a list of the regex expressions and replacements to emacs and
> have it applied to a directory of the files. Any solutions? Keyboard
> macros don't seem like the right solution....

If all the files are in one directory, you could probably do this with
dired?

Tim

--

-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au
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David Kastrup | 1 Jul 2008 07:23
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Re: How to apply a list of regex replaces to multiple files?

"michael.l" <michael.lommel <at> gmail.com> writes:

> I've browsed the messages here and have googled but don't see a clear
> solution yet. I have about 900 documents to which I need to apply a
> list of maybe 40 separate regex search and replaces. I would like to
> feed a list of the regex expressions and replacements to emacs and
> have it applied to a directory of the files. Any solutions? Keyboard
> macros don't seem like the right solution....

dired-do-query-replace-regexp is an interactive compiled Lisp function
in `dired-aux.el'.

It is bound to Q, <menu-bar> <operate> <query-replace>.

(dired-do-query-replace-regexp FROM TO &optional DELIMITED)

Do `query-replace-regexp' of FROM with TO, on all marked files.
Third arg DELIMITED (prefix arg) means replace only word-delimited matches.
If you exit (C-g, RET or q), you can resume the query replace
with the command M-,.

--

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum
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michael.l | 1 Jul 2008 07:56
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Re: How to apply a list of regex replaces to multiple files?

On Jun 30, 10:23 pm, David Kastrup <d... <at> gnu.org> wrote:
> "michael.l" <michael.lom... <at> gmail.com> writes:
> > I've browsed the messages here and have googled but don't see a clear
> > solution yet. I have about 900 documents to which I need to apply a
> > list of maybe 40 separate regex search and replaces. I would like to
> > feed a list of the regex expressions and replacements to emacs and
> > have it applied to a directory of the files. Any solutions? Keyboard
> > macros don't seem like the right solution....
>
> dired-do-query-replace-regexp is an interactive compiled Lisp function
> in `dired-aux.el'.
>
> It is bound to Q, <menu-bar> <operate> <query-replace>.
>
> (dired-do-query-replace-regexp FROM TO &optional DELIMITED)
>
> Do `query-replace-regexp' of FROM with TO, on all marked files.
> Third arg DELIMITED (prefix arg) means replace only word-delimited matches.
> If you exit (C-g, RET or q), you can resume the query replace
> with the command M-,.
>
> --
> David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Thank you David; hadn't come across that yet. Is there a way to input
the entire list of regex replacements rather than doing each from the
minibuffer? And will this mean typing "!" 900 times? I'm just learning
emacs.
(Continue reading)

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