Notepad++ wild card use with find and replace

Question

I have a 12-digit MAC address such as 5C838F9FE398 which I need to replace with 5C83.8F9F.E398

Since I have to this for more than 200 MAC addresses I thought to use Notepad++ to save time. Is it possible to do it quickly with Notepad++?

Answer 1

Yes, this is possible.

Assuming the list of macaddresses look like this:

5C838F9FE398
5C838F9FE398
5C838F9FE398
5C838F9FE398

(where each is unique of course)

You can find/replace using regex.

Open the Find/Replace dialog by pressing CTRL+H.

In the Find What field, enter: ^(.{4})(.{4})(.{4})
In the Replace with field, enter: $1.$2.$3

At the bottom in the Search Mode group, select Regular Expression.

Now hit Replace All.

---

Explaining the Regex:

^          Only match if this happens at the beginning of a line
  (        Start of group 1 (to replace with $1)
    .{4}   Any character, 4 times
  )        End of group 1
  (        Same as above for group 2
    .{4}
  )
  (        Same as above for group 3
    .{4}
  )

Replacing is setup as:

 $1    These are the first 4 values found
 .     place a period next
 $2    These are the second 4 values found
 .     place a period next
 $3    These are the third 4 values found.

Anything after this string is completely ignored, and will remain present.

So 5C838F9FE398 test becomes 5C83.8F9F.E398 test