This question is the opposite from other regex notepad++ questions. Instead of changing text between text, I need to replace text that is surrounding, like that:
from
$_REQUEST['action']
to
getReq('action')
So:
I wish to replace $_REQUEST( for getReq( and at same time replace ] for ).
How can I achieve that in Notepad++ ? There are more than a 1000 hits and I want to replace it all, not just the ones with action index, but many more!
You still want to match, you just want match with capture (Notepad supports this, make sure Regex is checked in search and replace. The ( ) is the capture group, the order of the first ( is the capture group number. (?: ) can be used to make a group non-capture)
Match on \$_REQUEST\['([^']*)'\]
Replace using capture with getReq\('$1'\)
EDIT: In Notepad, you have to escape () for some reason in the replace part
You need to use a capturing group in your regex. In most regex engines, capturing groups are indicated with parentheses, possibly escaped with backslashes in front:
foo(capturing_group)bar
foo\(capturing group\)bar
Notepad++ uses PCRE, I think, so it should be bare parens (the first example, above).
What you have is a larger pattern:
$_REQUEST['some variable text goes here']
You want to replace that with
getReq('some variable text goes here')
The capturing group will "capture" (or "save") the variable text, and a backreference to the group will "insert" the text in your replacement:
$_REQUEST['([^']*)']
getReq('\1')
The search would be for the outside text, $_REQUEST[' and '], plus a capturing group ( ... ) containing [^']* any number of characters that are not single quotes.
The replacement would be the outside replacement text, getReq(' and '), plus a backreference to the first (and only!) capturing group in the original match. The \1 is replaced by everything matched inside the first set of parens.
FYI: Groups are generally numbered by counting opening parentheses. So a nested group like this: ( ( ) ) ( ( ) ) would be numbered (1 (2 ) ) (3 (4 ) ).
