Thanks everyone for your responses. They enabled me to solve the problem.
Howard
On Tuesday 5 November 2024 at 1:13:46 pm UTC-5 jj wrote:
> 1. here is the find/replace dialog:
> [image: Screenshot 2024-11-05 at 18.50.03.png]
> 2. Here is what the file should look like once the replacement has been
> done:
> (the text options are displayed by clicking on the ⚙️ on the left of the
> navigation bar)
> [image: Screenshot 2024-11-05 at 18.49.22.png]
>
> Notice that the <TAB> tags where replaced by tab characters (the little
> triangles Δ only visible when Show invisibles > Show tabs is checked).
>
> The conversion should be immediate.
>
> Transforming your example to this Tab-Separated-Values result:
>
> [image: Screenshot 2024-11-05 at 19.00.50.png]
> (Notice that the invisible tab characters are visible here because Show
> invisibles > Show tabs is checked for this file too )
>
> HTH
>
> Jean Jourdain
>
> On Tuesday, November 5, 2024 at 12:37:59 PM UTC+1 Howard wrote:
>
>> 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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