Free Download & Tutorial: How to Perform Multiple Search and Replace Operations on Multiple Files in One Fell Swoop! (Advanced)

By Howard Charles Best, February 12, 2008

(llbest.com)

Subfolder support added: February 11, 2010

Preview mode added: May 17, 2010

This tutorial assumes the following 3 things:

1. That extensions for known file types are not hidden. (1. Click Start / My Documents. 2. Click Tools / Folder Options…. 3. Click the View tab. 4. Make sure that Hide extensions for known file types is unchecked.)

2. That you have Notepad2 or a shortcut to it on your desktop.

3. That you have installed Perl according to the tutorial at:
http://llbest.com/PerlProgramming.htm.

On this web page:
A. Introduction
B. Get the Free Download
C. Main Features
D. Example
E. Preview Mode
F. Subfolder Support
G. Conclusion

A. Introduction

This web page is a tutorial on how to use a free Perl program to do search and replace operations on an advanced level of complexity. As I said in the intermediate version, the Perl program has saved me tremendous amounts of time. I have used it hundreds of times, sometimes making changes to thousands of HTML files at a time! This web page uses exactly the same Perl program as the intermediate version. The only thing that has changed is that a few Regular Expression statements have been changed.

B. Get the Free Download

The free download (_REPLACE3.zip) contains the following 2 files:

Screen capture of Notepad2 showing the 2 files

1. Download now (1.59 KB).

2. Unzip _REPLACE3.zip to a folder called _REPLACE3..

C. Main Features:

1. Multiple files can be changed in one fell swoop.

2. These files can be a mixture of regular ANSI and UTF-8.

3. Optionally, files in subfolders may also be included.

4. Changed and unchanged files can be easily separated by sorting by “Date Modified.” (Unchanged files are not rewritten.)

5. A log file is created which lists how many changes were made to each file.

6. Optionally, Preview Mode can be used to do a find or to “go through the motions” without actually making any changes to any files.

7. If the .bat file is renamed (in order to create specialized versions, for example), then the new .log file will automatically have the new name.

D. Example:

Suppose, for the purpose of search engine compatibility, you want to remove the diacritics from some foreign words that are contained in a large mixture of .htm and .html files. The web pages may contain one or more of the following diacritic characters: á, é, í, ó, ú, and/or ý.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Drag and drop the _PERL_SandR.bat file’s icon onto the Notepad2 icon. Then you will see lines 23 through 26 and lines 67 through 71 as follows:

##### Change the following to the file name
##### extension(s) of the files you wish to edit:
$fileNameMask='\.(htm|html)$';
#$fileNameMask='\.htm$';

 ##### Begin regular expression statement(s)

 $buffer=~s/(.)/$t1=$1;$t2=index('áéíóúý',$t1);if($t2>=0){$t1=substr('aeiouy',$t2,1);$changes++};$t1/eg;

 ##### End of regular expression statement(s)

Note: # at the beginning of a line indicates that the line is a comment, so the Perl compiler simply ignoes it.

Note: The $buffer=~s/(.)/… line of regular expression Perl code above is fairly complex. Hence the term: “advanced.” See if you can figure it out using http://perldoc.perl.org/perlreref.html and http://perldoc.perl.org/index-functions.html.

By the way, line 25 could be shortened as follows:

$fileNameMask='\.html?$';

Here is what _PERL_SandR.test looks like, enlarged to clearly show the 3 diacritics:

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>

První

Druhý

Tretí
</body>
</html>

2. Double click _PERL_SandR.bat file’s icon. Then you should see the following:

Screen capture of search and replace operation

2 new files are created:

_PERL_SandR.test was copied to _PERL_SandR.htm and then the search and replace operation was performed, removing the diacritics:

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>

Prvni

Druhy

Treti
</body>
</html>

Here is what the LOG file looks like:

3 change(s) made to file: "_PERL_SandR.htm"

Changes made to 1 "\.(htm|html)$" file(s): 3

(_PERL_SandR.log)

Note: Lines 24, 25, 68 through 76 of _PERL_SandR.bat and _PERL_SandR6.bat use what are called Regular Expressions. For more examples of search / replacement string syntax using Regular Expressions, see http://llbest.com/RegularExpressions.htm. For a tutorial on Perl regular expressions, see http://perldoc.perl.org/perlretut.html. For a reference, see http://perldoc.perl.org/perlreref.html.

E. Preview Mode

The .bat file contains the following in lines 15 through 17:
##### If you want to do a find only (no actual changes), ##### then change "$previewMode = 0" to "$previewMode = 1": $previewMode = 0;

F. Subfolder Support

The .bat file contains the following in lines 19 through 21:
##### If you want to include subfolders, then change ##### "$doTheSubdirs = 0" to "$doTheSubdirs = 1": $doTheSubdirs = 0;

G. Conclusion

Now you are ready to perform multiple search and replace operations on any number of files:

1. Be sure to keep backup copies of all of the files until you are sure that the search and replace operations were done correctly.

2. Copy the files to be edited to a temporary folder such as C:\Temp2.

3. Copy _PERL_SandR.bat to the same folder.

4. Comment out line 69 and add your own particular search and replace operation line(s).

5. If appropriate, comment out both lines 25 and 26 and then add a file name mask assignment line which fits the particular files that you wish to change.

6. Double click the _PERL_SandR.bat file’s icon, and if all goes according to plan, all of the files will now be edited automatically!