Hi Howard,
You could do that with a canonize file and a few regular espressions.
1. Create a new file named canonize_lines_to_columns.txt with this content:
# -*- x-bbedit-canon-case-sensitive: 1; x-bbedit-canon-match-words: 0;
x-bbedit-canon-grep: 1; -*-
# End:
# Local Variables:
# coding: utf-8
# indent_style: tab
#===
# Save the annotation number in a <<< >>> bracket that we will need later.
* ^Annotation (\d+):<TAB><<<\1>>>* # Replace all the column titles by tabs.
* \n(Created at|Author|Type|Comment):\h*<TAB>\t* # Replace all the newlines
by a space in case there are some in the contents of Comment fields.
* \n<TAB>\x20* # Put a newline before each annotation number and remove the
<<< >>> bracket.
* <<<(\d+)>>><TAB>\n\1* # Put the column names in the first line.
* \A\h*$<TAB>Annotation\tCreated At\tAuthor\tType\tComment* # Put a single
space where there is more that one.
* \x20{2,}<TAB>\x20* # Reorder the columns to Author, Created At,
Annotation, Type, Comment.
* ^(.+?)\t(.+?)\t(.+?)\t<TAB>\3\t\2\t\1\t* # Now the file could be sorted
in BBEdit by Author, Created At
# Or imported into a Spreadsheet as Tab Separated Values.
2. Once you have created this file replace in it all the <TAB> by real
tabs. Take care to deselect the "Auto-expand tabs" option on the file
before you save it otherwise they will be replaced by spaces and we need
them as separators.
Find: <TAB>
Replace: \t
3. Go to your data file and use the menu Text > Canonize… with the saved
canonize file and apply it to your data.
4. Your data should be converted to Tab-Separated-Values with the columns
reordered as to be sorted in this order: Author, Created At, Annotation,
Type, Comment.
5. Use the menu Text > Sort Lines… or import the resulting TSV into a
spreadsheet.
HTH
Jean Jourdain
On Monday, November 4, 2024 at 6:10:04 PM UTC+1 Howard wrote:
> I think I can write the GREP code that matches the first four lines, but I
> am not sure how to do that for the *Comment* lines. Also, once I do that,
> how do I "write a regular expression that recognizes the sort keys within
> the line"?
>
> I've also never used text factory. (Is it easier to use in BBEdit 15 than
> in BBEdit 14?)
> Howard
>
> On Monday 4 November 2024 at 11:53:49 am UTC-5 Neil Faiman wrote:
>
>> As far as I know, BBEdit simply supports sorting *lines* — not arbitrary
>> records represented by batches of text lines. But do not despair. All is
>> not lost. BBEdit has really robust support for sorting lines.
>>
>> I would start with a GREP that could match across multiple lines and
>> collapse them into a single line, with some arbitrary separator character
>> representing where the original line breaks were. (You might need two
>> patterns, one to collapse the multi-line Comments into a single line, and
>> then a second one to collapse all the line in the record into a single line.
>>
>> Now that each record is represented by a single line, you can write a
>> regular expression that recognizes the sort keys within the line. Then you
>> can use the “Sort using pattern“ feature of the Text > Sort Lines… command
>> to sort the records on those keys.
>>
>> Finally, you can reverse the process from the first step and split the
>> records back into multiple lines.
>>
>> Once you’ve got each of the steps perfected, you can create a text
>> factory that will apply them to a file automatically, and you should be
>> good to go.
>>
>> Good luck,
>> Neil Faiman
>>
>> On Nov 4, 2024, at 11:35 AM, Howard <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> I have multiple records in a text file in the format below (seven sample
>> records shown). I want to sort all of them by *Author* and then, within
>> *Author,* *Created At*. In a record, the first four lines are always
>> just one line; however, the fifth line (*Comment*) can be up to 30-40
>> lines, possibly more).
>>
>> Is this something that BBEdit can do? If it is, how can I do it?
>>
>>
>>
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