Notepad++. How to replace different characters with corresponding letters at once?

Question

How to find and replace in Notepad++ multiple different characters to corresponding letters at once throughout the text? For example, I have 32 characters that I want to replace. So I have the character like “À”, and I want to replace it with the letter “A”. Next, I have the character like “Æ” and I want to replace it with the letter “Ж” and so on. Generally, I have 32 such characters and each time I need to do the same operation. Is any way to do this at once?

Answer 1

From notepad >= 6.0 you can replace multiple characters (matches) using something similar to:

search: (Ì)|(Í)|(Î)|(Ï)|(Ð)|(Ñ)
replace: (?1H)(?2O)(?3Π)(?4P)(?5C)(?6T)

Here every character is a captured group and is replaced by the characted in the replace string. Every replace character specifies the index of the group, starting at 1. For instance (?3Π) replaces the group 3 which in this case is the character Î. Î -> Π

You can see more on this answer.

Answer 2

Sometimes I have used wReplace from sharktime.com. It works pretty well. You install it and then can indicate as many characters to change as you want to.

I know it isn't a plugin style solution, but it works. Hope this helps!

Answer 3

This previous question provides an answer. Short version is, within Notepad++ with no plugins, it's not possible due to the way Find and Replace works.

I'd look at using sed or similar.

Answer 4

Even with Notepad++ 6's new RegEx engine that supports PCRE (source), there's no sane (i.e., with linear complexity) and reliable (i.e., guaranteed to work) approach that will allow you do achieve this in a single Find & Replace, let alone a single Find in Files.

You can, however, achieve this by using Find in Files twice:

1. Add a substitution matrix to each occurrence of any of the old characters:

   Find what:    ([ÌÍÎÏÐÑ])
   Replace with: ``\1`ÌH`ÍO`ÎΠ`ÏP`ÐC`ÑT``
   Search Mode:  Regular Expression
   

   This transforms fooÌbar into foo``Ì`ÌH`ÍO`ÎΠ`ÏP`ÐC`ÑT``bar, for example.

2. Replace each old character (and the substitution matrix) with the corresponding new character:

   Find what:    ``(.).*?`\1(.).*?``
   Replace with: \2
   Search Mode:  Regular Expression
   

   This transforms foo``Ì`ÌH`ÍO`ÎΠ`ÏP`ÐC`ÑT``bar into H, for example.

Note that you need to upgrade to Notepad++ 6.0 or higher for this. While the regular expression itself should also work with the old RegEx engine, there's a bug messes up multibyte characters in general.

How it works

1. • The character set ([ÌÍÎÏÐÑ]) matches any of those five characters.

     The parentheses turn this into the first subexpression (see next item).

   • \1 symbolizes the match of the first subexpression, i.e., the character we want to replace.

   • All other characters are treated literally.

   • The choice of ` as the delimiter is arbitrary. You can use any other character you want.

2. • (.) matches the first character after ``.

     The parentheses turn this into the first subexpression.

   • .*? matches as few characters as possible.

   • `\1 symbolizes ` followed by the match of the first subexpression, i.e., the character we want to replace.

   • (.) matches the first character after the character we want to replace. By our design, this is its replacement character.

     The parentheses turn this into the second subexpression.

   • .*?`` matches as few characters as possible until the final `` is encountered.

For further information on regular expressions, consult:

• How to use regular expressions in Notepad++ (tutorial)
• Regular Expression Language - Quick Reference - MSDN
• Regular-Expressions.info