Regex problem

John2011 · 01-19-2014, 04:37 AM

I hope someone can help me with a Regex problem.

I have a book without any spaces between some sentences.
Sentence one.Sentence two.

I would like it to be;
Sentence one. Sentence two.

I have been using
find:
([a-z]\.[A-Z])

which seems to find the Sentences without the space OK. I did a count and 256 were found.

But for the life of me I can't seem to get a Replace code.
I am using Sigil to do the work.

Does any of you learned folks have a suggestion?

Thanking you,
John P.

cybmole · 01-19-2014, 05:52 AM

find
([a-z])\.([A-Z])
replace \1. \2

mrmikel · 01-19-2014, 07:21 AM

But you will have to do the same thing for exclamation points and question marks and the above inside of quotation marks. Be sure to save a copy before these operations since you can't go back in Sigil.

theducks · 01-19-2014, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John2011

I hope someone can help me with a Regex problem.

I have a book without any spaces between some sentences.
Sentence one.Sentence two.

I would like it to be;
Sentence one. Sentence two.

I have been using
find:
([a-z]\.[A-Z])

which seems to find the Sentences without the space OK. I did a count and 256 were found.

But for the life of me I can't seem to get a Replace code.
I am using Sigil to do the work.

Does any of you learned folks have a suggestion?

Thanking you,
John P.

cybmole showed that you need 2 Capture pairs, not just the one.
Remember.you want 2 pieces so you can put them back with inserts.

[\.\!\?] could replace the \. to do this in one pass instead of the 3 , the more beginner safe way suggested by mrmikel

BTW you may have cases where there are quotation marks (straight or curly) :

".A
a."A

cybmole · 01-19-2014, 12:06 PM

arguably all you need to detect is a punctuation mark which is then followed by a capital letter, with no space inbetween.

so find \.(A-Z])
replace with . \1
& repeat for other punctuation
but then you can have issues with valid structures like U.S.A. or Mr.Smith ( should Mr. be followed by a space, or not ? )

it can be better to just go find a better source!

John2011 · 01-20-2014, 04:31 AM

Thank you all for your help.
I see now why I could not get the F&R to do what I wanted. I missed out two ) ( in the find. I will get my head around Regex one day. (I hope).

TheDucks; your were correct, there were a couple of ".As
I never thought of them until I read your reply.

I did have a back up copy just in case. I have been caught in the past.

Thank you all again.

John P.

theducks · 01-20-2014, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John2011

Thank you all for your help.
I see now why I could not get the F&R to do what I wanted. I missed out two ) ( in the find. I will get my head around Regex one day. (I hope).

TheDucks; your were correct, there were a couple of ".As
I never thought of them until I read your reply.

I did have a back up copy just in case. I have been caught in the past.

Thank you all again.

John P.

John2011
I have been pushing bits around for quite a few years now and I still have not seen them all and have to frequently reach for my backup

.

When doing many S&R cleanups, performing them in the wrong order can make life miserable later in the job.
Think patterns

and how they chain together
No exact examples:
You fix pattern A
The original Pattern A includes Pattern B, but because you fixed A first, the new B is no longer unique (matches other text that should not be changed)

eschwartz · 01-20-2014, 08:22 PM

You may want to use calibre's Edit Book feature, instead of Sigil. calibre has the ability to undo global actions, like regex replace all.

Sigil does not.

Shortcut key while in calibre is "T". If the book isn't in calibre, you can also use the standalone executable ebook-edit.exe

Toxaris · 01-21-2014, 02:12 AM

But Calibre Edit Book still misses some functionality from Sigil that is much used by me. It has some pro's, but also definitely some con's for me at the moment. Considering the speed with which things are developed by Kovid I expect them to be solved soon, but so far... It is not that hard to press the save button first.

01-19-2014, 04:37 AM	#1
John2011 Enthusiast Posts: 37 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Kobo 1	Regex problem I hope someone can help me with a Regex problem. I have a book without any spaces between some sentences. Sentence one.Sentence two. I would like it to be; Sentence one. Sentence two. I have been using find: ([a-z]\.[A-Z]) which seems to find the Sentences without the space OK. I did a count and 256 were found. But for the life of me I can't seem to get a Replace code. I am using Sigil to do the work. Does any of you learned folks have a suggestion? Thanking you, John P. Last edited by John2011; 01-19-2014 at 04:42 AM.

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01-19-2014, 05:52 AM	#2
cybmole Wizard Posts: 3,720 Karma: 1759970 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	find ([a-z])\.([A-Z]) replace \1. \2

01-19-2014, 07:21 AM	#3
mrmikel Color me gone Posts: 2,089 Karma: 1445295 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Central Oregon Coast Device: PRS-300	But you will have to do the same thing for exclamation points and question marks and the above inside of quotation marks. Be sure to save a copy before these operations since you can't go back in Sigil.

01-19-2014, 12:06 PM	#5
cybmole Wizard Posts: 3,720 Karma: 1759970 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	arguably all you need to detect is a punctuation mark which is then followed by a capital letter, with no space inbetween. so find \.(A-Z]) replace with . \1 & repeat for other punctuation but then you can have issues with valid structures like U.S.A. or Mr.Smith ( should Mr. be followed by a space, or not ? ) it can be better to just go find a better source!

01-20-2014, 04:31 AM	#6
John2011 Enthusiast Posts: 37 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Kobo 1	Thank you all for your help. I see now why I could not get the F&R to do what I wanted. I missed out two ) ( in the find. I will get my head around Regex one day. (I hope). TheDucks; your were correct, there were a couple of ".As I never thought of them until I read your reply. I did have a back up copy just in case. I have been caught in the past. Thank you all again. John P.

01-20-2014, 08:22 PM	#8
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	You may want to use calibre's Edit Book feature, instead of Sigil. calibre has the ability to undo global actions, like regex replace all. Sigil does not. Shortcut key while in calibre is "T". If the book isn't in calibre, you can also use the standalone executable ebook-edit.exe

01-21-2014, 02:12 AM	#9
Toxaris Wizard Posts: 4,520 Karma: 121692313 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Heemskerk, NL Device: PRS-T1, Kobo Touch, Kobo Aura	But Calibre Edit Book still misses some functionality from Sigil that is much used by me. It has some pro's, but also definitely some con's for me at the moment. Considering the speed with which things are developed by Kovid I expect them to be solved soon, but so far... It is not that hard to press the save button first.

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