Ok, I'm not a regexp expert but trying out the recommend suggestion ([:space:]?){8} had OOo writer searching and finding all instances where there was *1* or more consecutive spaces (up to 8).
It found occurances where there was only 4, only 6 etc.... So if this was used, based on the original question, it would find 8 spaces and replace with 4, it would then find 1 space and replace with 4... well at least this is what it did when I tried it. I may have the wrong end of the stick here, but this is what happened when I tried it. Regards, Paul On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 09:09:25 -0500, Paul B. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > David Teague wrote: > > I have some C++ code with annoyingly many spaces of > > indentation. > > > > I want to replace the leading 8 spaces with 4. If I use eight of the > > regular expression [:space:]?, as > > > > [:space:]?[:space:]?[:space:]?[:space:]?[:space:]?[:space:]?[:space:]? > > > > and replace with say four of them, the find button in the find > > command (Control F) finds every space, not just the 8 space > > instances. > > > > I want only to replace instances of 8 spaces with 4 spaces. > > > > How do I do this? > > > > (I was just told about the regular expression to match the > > beginning of a line, so I do know about that.) > > > > David Teague > > Viva Fifths tuning for Double Basses > > That seems to work here, but you might try enclosing it in > parentheses, or better, a more concise nomenclature: > > ([:space:]?){8} > > Paul > > -- > Using OOo m69 on WinXP. > Given address is infrequently checked. Please reply to group. > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]