Find/Replace in files batch process?

[ultraedit1234]

Is it possible to do a batch find/replace in files such that multiple changes are made to multiple files recursively in a folder structure using a predefined table of values in CSV or tab delimited format. For example:

Find XXXX >> Replace with YYYYY:

ala_88819 >> ala_143047
ala_88818 >> ala_143046
ala_88817 >> ala_143045
ala_88815 >> ala_143043
ala_88816 >> ala_143044
ala_88813 >> ala_143041
ala_88814 >> ala_143042
ala_95507 >> ala_143057
ala_95509 >> ala_143059
ala_95505 >> ala_143055
ala_88821 >> ala_143062
and so on for another 900 some odd changes...

I suppose just about anything can be done with a macro, but how can one write such a macro if the values on the right side of the table are going to change constantly?

Thanks in advance.

Paul

[Stephen_Hatton]

Hi All and Pbnyc

I too, am trying to find a method of batch replacing in HTML files of links to other pages.

I have 1100 HTML pages with the possibility that each page has a filename change requiring all the links (upto 1100) to be updated.

I read somewhere that macro's have a 30Kbyte limit, so a single macro can only change say 100 link names. However a batch macro can call up mutiple single macros.

This creates a bit of work:
1. I have to make a search/replace script suitable for the macro.
2. Divide it up into chunks to put into individual macros (say macro001 to macro012)
3. Load up say 100 files at a time and apply the macro to all openfiles.
4. Load up the next set of 100 files and repeat.

It would be nice to have a macro replace the 1100 links in one hit thoughout the files one by one automatically.

I would love to be able to feed the macro with a replacement file in this format:

page001 "tab" page001new
page002 "tab" page002z
page003 "tab" page003last

etc.


I tried the multi file search & replace (ie. *.html) with the variables, but it took more than 1 hour for 40 HTML files.

Regards
Ing. Stephen Hatton

[PaoloFCantoni]

Guys,

Look up the Find command in the help - you'll see the ^c special character. It uses the contents of the clipboard to find things...

You can create the list of items to search and replace in a file with a suitable separator (such as the tab).

You then run a macro that switches to the list window, picks up the first search string into the clipboard, switches back to the other window(s) and looks for the string. if it finds it, it deletes the selected text, switches back to the list window, picks up the replacement text and inserts at the deletion point. Repeat down the file... At end of file, move to next item in the search and replace window (perhaps by deleting the first line and going to top), Repeat...

I hope that's enough to give you an idea of the process.

I did something similar, but I can't find the macro that did it!

HTH,
Paolo

[Stephen_Hatton]

Hi PaoloFCantoni

Thanks for the reply. I haven't used ^c yet in the search replace command yet, so I will experiment.

One problem I see is having 1100 files. Ultraedit can't open that many....... I just had a brain wave......

I will make a macro to open one file at a time (massaged from a directory dump) and run a subroutine macro to search and replace in the file.....

If I find a simpler solution than what I have at this moment I will post it.

Got to try something!

Thanks again.

Regards
Ing. Stephen Hatton

[dodger57]

Your best bet is tu use a scripting language (PERL for example) to do your find/replace stuff. You could do this in just a very few lines of code and can do as many files as you want.

[Stephen_Hatton]

Hi Sten

Thanks. I know there are many methods of solving this problem, however my programming skills are limited and I don't have the time to learn any more languages as I am trying to setup a shopping cart which has many issues and is consuming most of my time.

I wanted to use a tool like UE to manage & massage the files precisely they way I want our web site to become.

I could buy programs that do this (and there are 2 or 3 that I have found) but every program has limits and prevent you from being efficient. UE is the most flexible and proven in file management.

One of the main limits with UE is that the macro's are limited to 30K bytes, so a search and replace script for 1000+ items does not fit into one macro and has to be split up manually over 4-8 macro names.

So I have made macros that
1. Creates the search and replace scripts for the HTML links that fit into each of these smaller macros (however it still requires manual cut and paste)
2. Runs a batch process of calling these macros and replaces all the terms.
3. Renaming the HTML files to the final names before putting them up on the web (through a DOS batch process).

Why all this effort you may ask?
1. My shopping cart is dynamic (php, MySQL, Javascript, smarty templates) so the pages created have abbreviatednames and not easily searched names (ie. not easy for people to find and not search engine friendly).
2. The cart does produce HTML catalog files for people to browse which are search engine friendly, but it puts all the generated html files away from the root directory: http://www.mysite.com/mystore/catalog which is not search engine friendly.
3. So to move all the pages to the root: http://www.mysite.com/ requires all the links to be replaced. UE does this easily.
4. While I am at it I might as well take control of the HTML file names and make sure that they are search friendly and that they don't change over time (ie. give dead links).
5. And, finally, I can create a downloadable catalog for people to browse faster on their local PC. At this moment, our catalog is +200MB of HTML pages with 40MB of pictures.

Now all of this can be achieved with php scripting language and MySQL database, however my skills are not up in that platform either.

When I finalise my scripts, I will post them here for others to use or to learn from.

And maybe UE can learn something from this exercise to incorporate into the future revisions of UE as I can see many people having shopping cart issues like this in the future.

Thanks and Regards
Ing. Stephen Hatton

[tatwo]

I suggested using TEXTools in another thread on Find & Replace.

Read the Help > Appendices > Command Reference to see a list of commands.

This will supplement UE and indeed can be setup as a User Tool in UE.

The demo is restricted to about 100 lines ..

I have purchased this tool and I find it very useful for all sorts of batch tasks.

[ultraedit1234]

I took a look at "TEXtools" and found it to be too complicated. All this about pipes and such was very foreign to me and not worth the effort.

Meanwhile, I used Paolo's idea (^c) combined with an idea I had which is to use "ReplInFiles" instead of the regular search and replace to create the following macro which works but unfortunately is still too slow for large numbers of files:

Code: Select all

InsertMode
ColumnModeOff
HexOff
UnixReOn
ReplInFiles MatchCase RegExp Recursive OutputWin Log "I:\TMP\working_directory\" "*.*" "/classware/ala.do\?isbn=\d\d\d\d\d\d\d\d\d\d&alaid=ala_"
"/classware/ala.do\?alaid=ala_"
ReplInFiles MatchCase RegExp Recursive OutputWin Log "I:\TMP\working_directory\" "*.*" "/classware/ala.do?isbn=\d\d\d\d\d\d\d\d\d\d&alaid=structure_"
"/classware/ala.do?isbn=GetString&alaid=structure_"
FindInFiles MatchCase Recursive OutputWin Log "I:\TMP\working_directory\" "*.*" "http://novella.mhhe.com"
Loop
Find RegExp "structure_\d*"
IfFound
StartSelect
Copy
ReplInFiles MatchCase RegExp Recursive OutputWin Log "I:\TMP\working_directory\" "*.*" "^c"
"XX"
Find RegExp "structure_\d*"
IfFound
StartSelect
Copy
ReplInFiles MatchCase RegExp Recursive OutputWin Log "I:\TMP\working_directory\" "*.*" "XX"
"^c"
EndLoop
IfNotFound
EndIf
ExitLoop
Loop
Find RegExp "\d*"
IfFound
StartSelect
Copy
ReplInFiles MatchCase RegExp Recursive OutputWin Log "I:\TMP\working_directory\" "*.*" "^c"
"XX"
Find RegExp "\d*"
IfFound
StartSelect
Copy
ReplInFiles MatchCase RegExp Recursive OutputWin Log "I:\TMP\working_directory\" "*.*" "XX"
"^c"
EndLoop
IfNotFound
EndIf
ExitLoop
ReplInFiles MatchCase RegExp Recursive OutputWin Log "I:\TMP\working_directory\" "*.*" ","ala.do?alaid=ala_"
","/classware/ala.do?alaid=ala_"


This macro works off of a long file which I'll abbreviate here:

Code: Select all

#In this site:    In this site:

90473   206185
#Learning   Learning

88819   205403
88818   205402
88817   205401
88815   205399
88816   205400
88813   205397
88814   205398
#Writing   Writing

135988   205419
95507   205411
95509   205413
95505   205409
88821   205417
95508   205412
95503   205407
88822   205408
135986   205415
88823   205416
88833   205420
95451   205405
94327   205421
95504   205406
95506   205410
90368   205414
88825   205404
88834   205418
#Research   Research
↓
↓
structure_89242   structure_206199
structure_89243   structure_206200
structure_89244   structure_206201
structure_89245   structure_206202
structure_89246   structure_206203
structure_89247   structure_206204
structure_89248   structure_206205
structure_89249   structure_206206
structure_89250   structure_206207
structure_89251   structure_206208
structure_89252   structure_206209
structure_89253   structure_206210
structure_89254   structure_206211
structure_89255   structure_206212
structure_89256   structure_206213
structure_89257   structure_206214