Search & Replace: Prepending something in the comments field

ownedbycats · 04-03-2021, 09:18 PM

I wanted to add a series description to some book comments. So I did this.

Search mode: regex
Search field: comments
Search for: .*
Replace with: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Destination field: comments
Mode: Prepend to field

This resulted in the replacement text appearing multiple times:

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What did I do wrong?

chaley · 04-04-2021, 06:07 AM

In Python 3 the regexp engine changed. The pattern .* matches both the zero-width 'thing' at the beginning of the line and the entire line. Because there were two matches your string was prepended twice.

Use either ^, which matches before the first character, or .+, which won't do a zero-width match.

ownedbycats · 04-04-2021, 06:18 AM

I tested and ^ will work.

04-03-2021, 09:18 PM	#1
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 11,361 Karma: 79528341 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	Search & Replace: Prepending something in the comments field I wanted to add a series description to some book comments. So I did this. Search mode: regex Search field: comments Search for: .* Replace with: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Destination field: comments Mode: Prepend to field This resulted in the replacement text appearing multiple times: What did I do wrong? Last edited by ownedbycats; 04-03-2021 at 11:27 PM.

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04-04-2021, 06:07 AM	#2
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,525 Karma: 8065948 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	In Python 3 the regexp engine changed. The pattern .* matches both the zero-width 'thing' at the beginning of the line and the entire line. Because there were two matches your string was prepended twice. Use either ^, which matches before the first character, or .+, which won't do a zero-width match.

04-04-2021, 06:18 AM	#3
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 11,361 Karma: 79528341 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	I tested and ^ will work.

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