How to merge lines every 3 rows in Notepad++

notepad

Like this:

A
B
C

D
E
F

G
H
I

To this:

A     B     C

D     E     F

G     H     I

It's a 2500 rows file, so i wouldn't just ctrl+j it.

Best Answer

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Hit Ctrl+H to access the Replace dialog, tick Regular expression, and enter the above expressions. Here it is in text:

Find what: (.+)\r\n(.+)\r\n(.+)
Replace with: \1\t\2\t\3\t (the last \t is optional; you won't visually notice any difference if you remove it, unless you are expecting the line to end with a tab character)

Replace \r\n in the "Find what:" with:

  • \n if you are editing a file with UNIX-style line endings (linefeed only)
  • \r\n if you are editing a file with Windows-style line endings (carriage return followed by line feed; in this case, you don't need to modify the original regex)
  • \r if you are editing a file with traditional Mac-style line endings (carriage return only)

You can find out which line ending you're using by examining the status bar at the bottom of the Notepad++ window. It will say "Dos\Windows", etc.

If your file has inconsistent line endings (which is a bad thing in general, but not impossible) and you want to replace all possible types of newlines in one go:

Find what: (.+)(\r|\n)+(.+)(\r|\n)+(.+)
Replace with: \1\t\3\t\5\t

You can learn more about regular expressions here.

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