Find "Not Beginning With"?

[johnmsch]

I have a file in plain text format that contains paths, one per line, such as:
c:\asdf
c:\asdf\qwerty
c:\Windows
etc...

I'm trying to find a way to search this file for any line that does NOT start with "c:\"

Any ideas?

Thanks

[Mofi]

Similar to Delete all lines not starting with a special phrase with the only difference that you don't want to delete those lines.

As already written in the thread linked above and several times in other threads a search for NOT("Beginning/Starting With") is in general not possible.

But in your special situation it is possible with following Perl regular expression: ^([^c]|c[^:]|c:[^\\]).*$

Note: This regex works only with the Perl compatible regular expression engine. The legacy Unix and the UltraEdit engine can only have 2 arguments in an OR expression, but here 3 arguments are necessary.

Code: Select all

^ ......... start of a line
(x|y|z) ... OR expression with 3 arguments
[^c] ...... first OR argument matches all lines not starting with character 'c'.
c[^:] ..... second OR argument matches all lines starting with character 'c'
            but second character is not a ':'.
c:[^\\] ... third OR argument matches all lines starting with "c:"
            but third character is not a '\'.
.*$ ....... matches the rest of the line without the line termination
            characters (CRLF for DOS).

[johnmsch]

Mofi,

Thanks for the reply, but this does not seem to work in UltraEdit 12. Evidently, I wasn't specific enough in my question. I was looking for a way to do this search (for lines not starting with c:\ within UltraEdit. I bring the file up in the editor, then use the Find function.

Thanks again,
John

[Mofi]

The regular expression I posted works with UltraEdit v12.10b and only with v12.00 and above because the Perl compatible regular expression must be used. I think, you have not specified this regular expression engine at Advanced - Configuration - Search - Regular Expression Engine. That's the reason why it does not work.

[johnmsch]

Mofi,

I had already set the configuration option. The problem was that I was not checking the "Regular Expressions" box in the find dialog. I did that, and the search worked perfectly.

Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!