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Notepad++ v8.5.4 Replace not working for these strings

I am working with lines like this

[6268:1434][2023-07-17T03:44:08]i001: Burn v3.14.0.4118, Windows v10.0 (Build 22631: Service Pack 0), path: C:\Users\david\AppData\Local\Temp\{95942D14-E274-486C-A7FB-EDAF9E773422}\.cr\winsdksetup.exe

[6268:1434][2023-07-17T03:44:08]i009: Command Line: '-burn.clean.room=E:\Downloads\winsdksetup.exe -burn.filehandle.attached=728 -burn.filehandle.self=740'

For search I use

    "(.*)2023-07-17(.*): "

The Double Quotes just show the string being used and with Regular Expression selected. That works.

If I then want to replace that with two blank characters.

Should be

Burn v3.14.0.4118, Windows v10.0 (Build 22631: Service Pack 0), path: C:\Users\david\AppData\Local\Temp\{95942D14-E274-486C-A7FB-EDAF9E773422}\.cr\winsdksetup.exe

getting

C:\Users\david\AppData\Local\Temp\{95942D14-E274-486C-A7FB-EDAF9E773422}\.cr\winsdksetup.exe

Should be

Command Line: '-burn.clean.room=E:\Downloads\winsdksetup.exe -burn.filehandle.attached=728 -burn.filehandle.self=740'

getting

'-burn.clean.room=E:\Downloads\winsdksetup.exe -burn.filehandle.attached=728 -burn.filehandle.self=740'

Why is the first ": " not being used as the search delimiter instead of the Last?

Solution

  • Why is the first ": " not being used as the search delimiter instead of the Last?

    That is because the .* regex matches the longest sequence that allows the rest of the regex to match. That is, .* is "greedy" by default. You have two options:

    1. Switch to a non-greedy match: .*?. See https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_80_0/libs/regex/doc/html/boost_regex/syntax/perl_syntax.html.

    2. Change the second .* to match the maximal number of non-colon characters: [^:]*.