regex help

users
#1

I have a script that mysteriously became double spaced.
I want to search for 2 end of paragraph marks and replace them with one. I can do a regex search for $ and find them all, but $$ finds none - I presume there is something between them that does not show as a formatting mark.
I don't want to remove all blank lines, just the ones that have a blank line following.

Or, any other suggestions.

What is the regex for a paragraph mark in replace?

thank in advance for the help.

-bill

#2

I have a script that mysteriously became double spaced. I want to search for 2 end of paragraph marks and replace them with one.

So it's the paragraphs that are spaced, not lines (the usual meaning of "double-spaced")?

I can do a regex search for $ and find them all, but $$ finds none - I presume there is something between them that does not show as a formatting mark.

You are labouring under the common misapprehension that the pilcrow that indicates the presence of a paragraph break has an actual presence in the document; no: think of it merely as the indicator that it is. And you think that the $ symbol matches this; also no.

I don't want to remove all blank lines, just the ones that have a blank line following.

In other words you want to remove blank empty *paragraphs*.

What is the regex for a paragraph mark in replace?

There isn't one. Instead, the $ symbol merely locks your pattern, whatever it is, so that it will match only something that occurs at the end of a paragraph.

Or, any other suggestions.

Don't think of searching for paragraph breaks, which you cannot do. Instead, search for the empty paragraphs that you wish to delete. They contain nothing, so the pattern you need is also nothing. But you need to arrange that it matches nothing only if that nothing occurs at the beginning of a paragraph and at the same time at the end of a paragraph. The symbol for locking to the start of a paragraph is the caret, "^", so the pattern you should search for is "^$" (no quotes, of course) - replacing with nothing.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#3

I have a script that mysteriously became double spaced. I want to search for 2 end of paragraph marks and replace them with one.

So it's the paragraphs that are spaced, not lines (the usual meaning of "double-spaced")?

Yes, I do mean lines are double spaced, but...

I can't do what I want to do in my programming editor and when I read the script into LO the line endings are suppressed and each line is treated as a paragraph.

I can do a regex search for $ and find them all, but $$ finds none - I presume there is something between them that does not show as a formatting mark.

You are labouring under the common misapprehension that the pilcrow that indicates the presence of a paragraph break has an actual presence in the document; no: think of it merely as the indicator that it is. And you think that the $ symbol matches this; also no.

Thank you.

I don't want to remove all blank lines, just the ones that have a blank line following.

In other words you want to remove blank empty *paragraphs*.

Yes, but I have intentional blank lines that I do not want to remove.

What is the regex for a paragraph mark in replace?

There isn't one. Instead, the $ symbol merely locks your pattern, whatever it is, so that it will match only something that occurs at the end of a paragraph.

Or, any other suggestions.

Don't think of searching for paragraph breaks, which you cannot do. Instead, search for the empty paragraphs that you wish to delete. They contain nothing, so the pattern you need is also nothing. But you need to arrange that it matches nothing only if that nothing occurs at the beginning of a paragraph and at the same time at the end of a paragraph. The symbol for locking to the start of a paragraph is the caret, "^", so the pattern you should search for is "^$" (no quotes, of course) - replacing with nothing.

Is there a way to select a paragraph followed by an empty paragraph?

#4

I have a script that mysteriously became double spaced. I want to search for 2 end of paragraph marks and replace them with one.

So it's the paragraphs that are spaced, not lines (the usual meaning of "double-spaced")?

Yes, I do mean lines are double spaced, but...

If the lines of a paragraph really are double-spaced, you need to go to the paragraph or paragraph style formatting and change "Line spacing" from Double back to Single. Problem solved. In that case, you would not be - as you suggested - looking for anything to search for. If that is not your solution, you don't have double spacing and it would help you to understand what you do have (and indeed to explain your problem on the list) by using the appropriate terms. Remember that the concept of "lines" as you appear to be using it went out with lined manuscript paper or typewriters.

I can't do what I want to do in my programming editor and when I read the script into LO the line endings are suppressed and each line is treated as a paragraph.

If each line is a separate paragraph but they are still spaced too much, either you have empty paragraphs (not "lines") between your real paragraphs or you have paragraph spacing (in paragraph or paragraph style formatting) that you don't want. Remove paragraph spacing there.

I don't want to remove all blank lines, just the ones that have a blank line following.

In other words you want to remove blank empty *paragraphs*.

Yes, but I have intentional blank lines that I do not want to remove.

The only "blank lines" are created if you have consecutive *line breaks* between text. Is that really what you have?

Oh, and if you are describing the so-called "blank lines" you want to remove the same way as the "blank lines" you want to preserve, how are we to know - indeed, how is LibreOffice to know - which is which? There has to be a specified difference if either a machine or an earnest human can distinguish them.

Is there a way to select a paragraph followed by an empty paragraph?

I'm not sure there is. But how would that help you?

Here's a thought. (I'm guessing.) Do you actually have text that should run on within paragraphs but has somehow become separated such that each line of any paragraph has become a separate paragraph? If so, you may be able to reassemble paragraphs using AutoCorrect with "Combine single line paragraphs if length greater than ..." to a suitably small value.

Should you be sending a sample document to someone (or to the list if it would be accepted) for diagnosis?

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#5

Thank you very much Brian.

I decided that it would be easier to be the "earnest human" and manually delete the extraneous lines(paragraphs).

Maybe when I have more time I will come back to this and post an example to the list.