Help with S&R RegEx Function

[MerlinMama]

I recently lost all my saved searches (my own fault) and while I have recovered them from a backup, there were a few tweaks I did that I can't for the life of me remember how I did them. There is one, in particular, I hope to get help with.

I currently have three different "Last Read" versions on my ebooks/fics:

1. <b>Last Read:</b> <br/><br/>
2. <b>Last Read:</b><em>N/A</em><br/><br/>
3. <b>Last Read:</b> 02/02/2022<br/><br/>

Here is the "Find" I have recovered from my backup, which I can get to work for the 2nd & 3rd versions above:

(<em>N/A</em>| \d{1,2}/\d{2}/\d{4})

but I had at some point modified things so that I could also search for just a space, but I don't know what I did to accomplish that. My current replace (what I had before and now, since this wasn't affected by the loss of my saved searches) is:

def replace(match, number, file_name, metadata, dictionaries, data, functions, *args, **kwargs):
    from datetime import datetime
    return datetime.now().strftime(" %m/%d/%Y")

I have no idea what I did, but for the last 2 months or so, whenever I would add a book, my title page would have the first option of Last Read above, and when I was done, I would just run my saved search and it would insert the correct date. I just don't remember how I did it.

Can anyone help?

(I *might* have set up a separate S&R for that one, but I'm 98% positive I didn't.)

[max-min]

Originally Posted by MerlinMama

I have no idea what I did, but for the last 2 months or so, whenever I would add a book, my title page would have the first option of Last Read above, and when I was done, I would just run my saved search and it would insert the correct date. I just don't remember how I did it.

Can anyone help?

(I *might* have set up a separate S&R for that one, but I'm 98% positive I didn't.)

It seems it's related to your own thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=343893 , look at answer #5.

[MerlinMama]

No, I tried that and it didn't work (I did go through that thread.) First, that was only for N/A, and I can't get it to work with the tags. With the tags, I can get #2 and #3 to work, but don't remember how I modified it for #1

Thank you though.

[max-min]

Originally Posted by MerlinMama

With the tags, I can get #2 and #3 to work, but don't remember how I modified it for #1

OK, try this one, with the function you showed above :

Last Read:</b>\K(<em>N/A</em>| \d{1,2}/\d{2}/\d{4}|\s)

It will capture your 3 forms.
Explanation : You have to specify the text before the targeted text ("Last Read:</b>"), because you don't want to capture all spaces in the page . The \K reinitialize the pointer at this position (i.e. "forget the text found until this point")

[MerlinMama]

Thank you, I'm not home for the rest of the week, but I will try when I get back

[MerlinMama]

Ok, that one worked! Thank you. I was sure I had tried that, but with all the variations I tried, I probably missed a few.

Again thank you so much!