I'm trying to find a trick for using the grep-enabled Find/Replace BBEdit
to convert files that use spaces for indentation to using tabs. Here's an
example input text snippet:
1. Item
a. sub-item
i. third level
ii. another third level
2. Second Top Level
What I'd like to do is replace all sets-of-4-spaces at the beginning of the
line with a single tab (per each 4-space-set), but it seems like this would
require being able to count the *number *of matches and use that in the
back reference somehow
For example, the following search and replace patterns can be used to
replace the *first *set of spaces with a tab, but this pattern must be
applied repeatedly for every "level" of indent being used in the file:
*Find:*
^(\t*)(\ \ \ \ )
*Replace:*
\1\t
Ideally I want something like this:
*Find:*
^((\ \ \ \ )+)
*Replace:*
\t{countOf(\2 in \1)} # Yes it's wildly invalid; use your imagination.
:-P
I'm unaware of any mechanism in grep/regex that would allow for this. Am I
correct in thinking it's impossible? Is there an alternative approach,
perhaps via Apple/shell script that could get the job done that I'm not
considering?
Thanks,
Brian
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