Well answered, Harold. :) Regular expressions can be a little daunting when you first start looking at them, but they're very powerful once you've wrapped your head around how they work. And I'm finding that they pop up *everywhere* these days!
-----Original Message----- From: Harold Putman [mailto:hput...@lexmark.com] Sent: 18 January 2012 19:51 To: Ant Users List Subject: Re: Update property value in file and retaining format. These are Regular Expression "metacharacters" ^ means start of line $ means end of line \1 is a "backreference" used in substitution. It means insert the first part of the pattern than matches. If you Google or look up a book on Regular Expressions you will find more complete explanations of these things. -Harold On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 11:46 AM, Nehal Patel <nehalhpatel...@gmail.com>wrote: > Nice, this was the solution! > Frankly this is a bit more advanced that i know. > > I don't know the following: > What the "^" means. > What the "$" means. > What the "\1" means. > > > Thanks. > > On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 4:38 AM, Emma Burrows <emma.burr...@rpharms.com > >wrote: > > > You're replacing the entire "Test2<tab><tab>=" line with the string > > "test2=xxxxx" which obviously doesn't contain the tab characters. > > > > You should probably investigate more sophisticated ways of preserving the > > original tabs like > > > > match="^([ \t]*test2[ \t]*=)(.*)$" > > replace="\1xxxxxxx" > > > > I haven't tested it but something like that should preserve "test2" and > > all the tabs around it, while still replacing the bit you actually want > to > > change, which is whatever comes after the = sign. > > > > HTH! > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Nehal Patel [mailto:nehalhpatel...@gmail.com] > > Sent: 13 January 2012 23:01 > > To: user@ant.apache.org > > Subject: Update property value in file and retaining format. > > > > Hello, > > Having an problem updating the value of in a property file and > > retaining the format. For example i have the following > > stuff.properties: > > test1 <tab> <tab> <tab> =aaa > > test2 <tab> <tab> <tab> =bbb > > test3 <tab> <tab> <tab> =ccc > > > > > > I run the following: > > <target name="update-stuff-properties"> > > <replaceregexp file="stuff.properties" > > match="^[ \t]*test2[ \t]*=.*$" > > replace="test2=zzzzzzzz" > > byline="true" > > /> > > </target> > > > > > > I get the following: > > test1 <tab> <tab> <tab> =aaa > > test2=zzzzzzzz > > test3 <tab> <tab> <tab> =ccc > > > > > > I must be missing something on how to retain the " <tab> <tab> <tab> > > " which proceed the "=". > > > > Thanks. > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: user-unsubscr...@ant.apache.org > > For additional commands, e-mail: user-h...@ant.apache.org > > > > > > ______________________________________________________________________ > > This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. > > For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com > > ______________________________________________________________________ > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: user-unsubscr...@ant.apache.org > > For additional commands, e-mail: user-h...@ant.apache.org > > > > > -- Harold PUTMAN Web Technology Specialist *Lexmark International, Inc. <http://www.lexmark.com>* 740 W New Circle Rd. Lexington, KY 40550 +1(859) 232-2839 hput...@lexmark.com ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com ______________________________________________________________________ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: user-unsubscr...@ant.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: user-h...@ant.apache.org
