Re: search across linebreaks

[Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net>]

"Nicolas Richard" <theonewiththeevillook@yahoo.fr> writes:

> Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:
>> The two solutions I can think of are: 1) break up the characters in the
>> search string and insert "\n?" between each one to create regexps to
>> search on, and 2) unfill the whole file at the start of the procedure
>> and then refill it afterwards. Neither of these seems like a great
>> idea -- does anyone have any brighter ideas?
>
> Not bright by any means, but slightly different from your solutions. The idea
> is : save newlines as markers (except if two or more consecutive), and
> restore afterwards.
>
> (defun yf/test nil ""
>   (let* (lom marker
> 	 (dict '(("foo bar" "foo barred")
> 		 ("foo baz" "foo bazzed")
> 		 ("foo foo" "foo fooed")))
> 	 (regexp (regexp-opt (mapcar 'car dict))))
>     ;; replace single newlines by markers (recorded in a list of markers)
>     (while (search-forward "\n" nil t)
>       (if (looking-at "\n")
> 	  (skip-chars-forward "\n")
> 	(replace-match " ")
> 	(add-to-list 'lom (set-marker (make-marker) (point)))))
>     (goto-char (point-min))
>     ;; replace matches according to dict
>     (while (re-search-forward regexp nil t)
>       (replace-match (cadr (assoc (match-string 0) dict)) t t))
>     ;; transform markers into newline again
>     (while (setq marker (pop lom))
>       (goto-char marker)
>       (when (looking-at " ")
> 	(replace-match ""))
>       (insert "\n"))))

That's a pretty interesting solution, thank you! I don't use markers
much, but the basic idea of the marker -- a spot that remains immobile
relative to the text around it -- seems pretty applicable to my problem.

Thanks!
Eric