Jean, I tried to apply your canonize_lines_to_columns.txt file to the data
shown earlier in this post, following your directions; however, after
letting it run for a few minutes, nothing happened. I had to Force Quit.
I had to manually change every <TAB> to `\t` and the BBEdit Find/Replace
wouldn't do it. In BBEdit Settings, the "Auto-expand tabs" option was off.
How do I deselect that option?
How long should it take for the data to be converted? What could I be doing
wrong?
Howard
On Monday 4 November 2024 at 5:15:56 pm UTC-5 jj wrote:
> Hi Howard,
>
> You could do that with a canonize file and a few regular espressions.
>
> 1. Create a new file named canonize_lines_to_columns.txt with this
> content:
>
> # -*- x-bbedit-canon-case-sensitive: 1; x-bbedit-canon-match-words: 0;
> x-bbedit-canon-grep: 1; -*-
> # End:
> # Local Variables:
> # coding: utf-8
> # indent_style: tab
> #===
> # Save the annotation number in a <<< >>> bracket that we will need later.
>
> * ^Annotation (\d+):<TAB><<<\1>>>* # Replace all the column titles by
> tabs.
>
> * \n(Created at|Author|Type|Comment):\h*<TAB>\t* # Replace all the
> newlines by a space in case there are some in the contents of Comment
> fields.
>
> * \n<TAB>\x20* # Put a newline before each annotation number and remove
> the <<< >>> bracket.
>
> * <<<(\d+)>>><TAB>\n\1* # Put the column names in the first line.
>
> * \A\h*$<TAB>Annotation\tCreated At\tAuthor\tType\tComment* # Put a
> single space where there is more that one.
>
> * \x20{2,}<TAB>\x20* # Reorder the columns to Author, Created At,
> Annotation, Type, Comment.
>
> * ^(.+?)\t(.+?)\t(.+?)\t<TAB>\3\t\2\t\1\t* # Now the file could be sorted
> in BBEdit by Author, Created At
> # Or imported into a Spreadsheet as Tab Separated Values.
>
> 2. Once you have created this file replace in it all the <TAB> by real
> tabs. Take care to deselect the "Auto-expand tabs" option on the file
> before you save it otherwise they will be replaced by spaces and we need
> them as separators.
>
> Find: <TAB>
> Replace: \t
>
> 3. Go to your data file and use the menu Text > Canonize… with the saved
> canonize file and apply it to your data.
>
> 4. Your data should be converted to Tab-Separated-Values with the columns
> reordered as to be sorted in this order: Author, Created At, Annotation,
> Type, Comment.
>
> 5. Use the menu Text > Sort Lines… or import the resulting TSV into a
> spreadsheet.
>
> HTH
>
> Jean Jourdain
>
> On Monday, November 4, 2024 at 6:10:04 PM UTC+1 Howard wrote:
>
>> I think I can write the GREP code that matches the first four lines, but
>> I am not sure how to do that for the *Comment* lines. Also, once I do
>> that, how do I "write a regular expression that recognizes the sort keys
>> within the line"?
>>
>> I've also never used text factory. (Is it easier to use in BBEdit 15 than
>> in BBEdit 14?)
>> Howard
>>
>> On Monday 4 November 2024 at 11:53:49 am UTC-5 Neil Faiman wrote:
>>
>>> As far as I know, BBEdit simply supports sorting *lines* — not
>>> arbitrary records represented by batches of text lines. But do not
>>> despair. All is not lost. BBEdit has really robust support for sorting
>>> lines.
>>>
>>> I would start with a GREP that could match across multiple lines and
>>> collapse them into a single line, with some arbitrary separator character
>>> representing where the original line breaks were. (You might need two
>>> patterns, one to collapse the multi-line Comments into a single line, and
>>> then a second one to collapse all the line in the record into a single line.
>>>
>>> Now that each record is represented by a single line, you can write a
>>> regular expression that recognizes the sort keys within the line. Then you
>>> can use the “Sort using pattern“ feature of the Text > Sort Lines… command
>>> to sort the records on those keys.
>>>
>>> Finally, you can reverse the process from the first step and split the
>>> records back into multiple lines.
>>>
>>> Once you’ve got each of the steps perfected, you can create a text
>>> factory that will apply them to a file automatically, and you should be
>>> good to go.
>>>
>>> Good luck,
>>> Neil Faiman
>>>
>>> On Nov 4, 2024, at 11:35 AM, Howard <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> I have multiple records in a text file in the format below (seven sample
>>> records shown). I want to sort all of them by *Author* and then, within
>>> *Author,* *Created At*. In a record, the first four lines are always
>>> just one line; however, the fifth line (*Comment*) can be up to 30-40
>>> lines, possibly more).
>>>
>>> Is this something that BBEdit can do? If it is, how can I do it?
>>>
>>>
>>>
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