Regexp regular/recursive find/replace in Notepad++

Question

How to split some strings defined in a specific format:

[length namevalue field]name=value[length namevalue field]name=value[length namevalue field]name=value[length namevalue field]name=value

Is it possible with a Find/Replace regex in Notepad++ isolate the pair name=value replacing [length namevalue field] with a white space? The main problem is related to numeric value where a simple \d{4} search doesn't work.

Eg.

INPUT:

0010name=mario0013surname=rossi0006age=180006phone=0014address=street
0013name=marianna0013surname=rossi0006age=210006phone=0015address=street1
0003name=pia0015surname=rossini0005age=30017phone=+39221122330020address=streetstreet

OUTPUT:

name=mario surname=rossi age=18 phone= address=street
name=mario surname=rossi age=18 phone= address=street
name=marianna surname=rossi age=21 phone= address=street1
name=pia surname=rossini age=3 phone=+3922112233 address=streetstreet

@WiktorStribiżew thank you for the feedback. It seems to work. Can you give me more details about the regex? — Marco
– Marco, Commented Apr 28, 2022 at 9:42

Wiktor Stribiżew · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-28 09:49:32Z

You can use

\d{4}(?=[[:alpha:]]\w*=)
\d{4}(?=[^\W\d]\w*=)

See the regex demo.

The patterns match

\d{4} - four digits
(?=[[:alpha:]]\w*=) - that are immediately followed with a letter and then any zero or more word chars followed with a = char immediately to the right of the current position.
(?=[^\W\d]\w*=) - that are immediately followed with a letter or an underscore and then any zero or more word chars followed with a = char immediately to the right of the current position.

In Notepad++, if you want to remove the match at the start of the line and replace with space anywhere else, you can use

^(\d{4}(?=[[:alpha:]]\w*=))|(?1)

and replace with (?1: ). The above explained pattern, \d{4}(?=[[:alpha:]]\w*=), is matched and captured into Group 1 if it is at the start of a line (^), and just matched anywhere else ((?1) recurses the Group 1 pattern, so as not to repeat it). The (?1: ) replacement means we replace with empty string if Group 1 matched, else, we replace with a space.

See the demo screenshot:

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