Delete line if does not start with a specified character or word

[Javier]

I need to delete all lines in a text file that doesn't start with "@".

For example

FFFFFF
@GGG
AAAAA
@BBBB

should result:

@GGG
@BBBB

i'm trying with IfnotFound but I'm getting errors.
any help? thanks

[mrainey56]

Do a regular Search/Replace All
Regular Expressions checked (Unix-style)

Find What: ^[^@].*\p
Replace With: nothing

[Javier]

I've edited the next macro but it's not working

InsertMode
ColumnModeOff
HexOff
UnixReOn
Top
Find RegExp "^[^@].*\p"
Replace All ""

Is this correct?

Edit: RegExp parameter was missing.

[Doug E]

Using this thread to modify my own macros I've come up with the problem..

When I search for ^[^@].*\p in a file containing the lines...

Code: Select all

FFFFFF
@GGG
AAAAA
@BBBB

it works properly showing me the lines...

Code: Select all

FFFFFF
AAAAA

But when I use it for my own purposes I try searching for ^[^http].*\p in the lines....

Code: Select all

http://www.www.com/
http://www.www.com
ftp.www.com
http://www.ftp.com

And I get an UltraEdit popup saying...

Code: Select all

Search string '^[^http].*\p' not found!

I am sure to check Unix Regular Expressions so what fundamental gap in knowledge am I missing here?

[pietzcker]

[^http] means "Match any one character except h, t or p". So your regex should match ftp.www.com (and it does for me in v14.20.0.1035). However, it will also match a line like "this line starts with a t".

What you want to do requires Perl regular expressions.

^\s*(?!http).*\r\n

will match a (DOS file) line that doesn't start with "http" (leading whitespace ignored).

[Doug E]

Ahh, beautiful. Thanks pietzcker!

I spent much of the night reading how to do it with unix expressions. I'll have to read up on perl next.

Some keywords to help people find it: find word at start of the line cut it select line out paste it into new file txt

And the description of what it does...

Searches for lines that don't start with desired words (http in this case), selects those lines, cuts them out and pastes them into a newly opened file so you can review what was removed from the original file.

Show Cancel dialog for this macro: unchecked
Continue if search string not found: checked

InsertMode
ColumnModeOff
HexOff
PerlReOn
Top
Clipboard 9
ClearClipboard
Loop 0
Find RegExp "^\s*(?!http).*\r\n"
IfFound
CutAppend
Else
ExitLoop
EndIf
EndLoop
NewFile
Paste
ClearClipboard
Clipboard 0
Top