When I need to sort something like this I don’t use GREP since I’m not familiar enough with it to get it right with little effort, but you can use the basic Find and Replace
Find \r \r (there’s a space between them because you said there was a space between the paragraphs. If you just meant there was an empty line, use \r\r) Replace with xxxxxxx This preserves the gap between paragraphs as xxxxxxx, and now you have a whole bunch of lines ending in a return Then find \r replace with “ “ (a single space) Then Find xxxxxxx Replace with \r\r Will separate out all the paragraphs again with a blank line between them. Then in case you’ve ended up with 2 spaces anywhere Find “two spaces” (means 2 spaces, not the words in quotes) Replace with “one space” (same as above - a single space, not the two words) Roger > On Nov 2, 2021, at 11:04 PM, Gavin Brooks <[email protected]> wrote: > > I have a lot of text that has been copied from a PDF, that I need to make > into text files for research purposes. When the text copied over, there was a > hard line return at the end of every sentences, and a blank space between > paragraphs. I need to the lines within the paragraph joined but the > paragraphs to remain separate and am looking for a regex to do that: > > For example, the text looks like this: > > This is the 1st paragraph. > With a few lines that > need connected. > > This is another paragraph with > a blank line between > it and the previous paragraph. > > I want it to look like this: > > This is the 1st paragraph. With a few lines that need connected. > > This is another paragraph with a blank line between it and the previous > paragraph. > > The best that I have been able to come up with is this: > ([^\r\n])\R(?=[^\r\n]) > > But that will also remove the last character of each line, so I get this: > > This is the 1st paragraph With a few lines tha need connected. > > This is another paragraph wit a blank line betwee it and the previous > paragraph. > > Any suggestions about how to rewrite the above so that it does not remove the > final character? > > Gavin > > > > > -- > This is the BBEdit Talk public discussion group. If you have a feature > request or need technical support, please email "[email protected]" > rather than posting here. Follow @bbedit on Twitter: > <https://twitter.com/bbedit <https://twitter.com/bbedit>> > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "BBEdit Talk" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bbedit/7d23bc98-d5b6-4739-94e8-c08f1efabb28n%40googlegroups.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bbedit/7d23bc98-d5b6-4739-94e8-c08f1efabb28n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. -- This is the BBEdit Talk public discussion group. If you have a feature request or need technical support, please email "[email protected]" rather than posting here. Follow @bbedit on Twitter: <https://twitter.com/bbedit> --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BBEdit Talk" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bbedit/BDD0459D-A87C-4131-A92A-4EB255C1977C%40gmail.com.
