I have below text line in Notepad ++
Type, Layer, Env, key, action, timestamp, performedBy, desc,
I want to convert it to
'Type', 'Layer', 'Env', 'key', 'action', 'timestamp', 'performedBy', 'desc',
I write in find [a-zA-Z]*, and it gives me each comma separated string what shall I enter in replace to have them surrounded by quotes?
You can use ([a-zA-Z]*) in find and '\1' or '$1' in replace.
\1 or $1 (in newer versions of n++) means the first captured group.
See also this question.
([a-zA-Z0-9\.]+) worked for me, having * means "empty" matches are included also which in my case didn't make sense.You can use $0 to refer to the whole match in the replacement pattern, so you could handle your task simply by replacing with :
'$0'
Additionally, I suggest changing your matching pattern to [a-zA-Z]+ instead of [a-zA-Z]* to avoid the risk of adding quotes around zero-width matches.
If you search for ([a-zA-Z]*), the () indicates a group you can reference later.
Now you can write '$1', in the replace dialog.
Try:
CTRL+H
Find What: (.*?)(?=,)
Replace With: '$1'
Output: 'Type',' Layer',' Env',' key',' action',' timestamp',' performedBy',' desc',
Note: Make sure Search Mode is Regular expression
