How can I automate this task in Notepad++

Question

I've a text file with around 200+ table names. Sample like this

T_BCPCOMITEE_EA4
T_BCPEMERSIT_EA4
T_BCPROLE_EA4
T_BDR_AG_EA4
T_BDR_CRITERIA_EA4

I need to take the table name and add a select statement the final end output should be like htis

--T_BCPCOMITEE_EA4
select * from T_BCPCOMITEE_EA4;
--T_BCPEMERSIT_EA4
select * from T_BCPEMERSIT_EA4;
--T_BCPROLE_EA4
select * from T_BCPROLE_EA4;
--T_BDR_AG_EA4
select * from T_BDR_AG_EA4;
--T_BDR_CRITERIA_EA4
select * from T_BDR_CRITERIA_EA4;

Is there any way I can automate this task. Please help. TIA

Answer 1

The easiest way to do this is to do a regex find and replace.

This is done by either going to Search on the toolbar and then selecting Replace..., or by using the key combination CTRL + H.

Ensure that you've got Regular expression selected in the bottom right and ensure that . matches newline is unchecked (this is important for the regex to work as intended).

NOTE: This regex solution is assuming that each line has a separate and complete table name (as in, no table names are split across multiple lines and each line only contains a single table name).

Put the following into the "Find" box:

^(.*)

Put the following into the "Replace" box:

--\1\nSELECT * FROM \1;

Explanation

The regex string can be broken down as follows:

The ^ is a start of line anchor and makes sure that the regex matches the very start of each line. This ensures that it doesn't accidentally pick up extra lines.

The (.*) group is used to match any character (.) any number of times (*) and then to make those matched characters available to the replace string (()) using the placeholder format of $x, where x is the group number (which increases sequentially, with 1 being the first, 2 being the second and so on).

The replace string can be broken down as follows:

--\1 is used to print two literal - characters, followed by all the characters that were matched in the regex (the (.*) group), which are inserted in place of \1.

The \n is used to add a new line into the replace string (\r\n may need to be used instead depending on your operating system, but I'm currently going on the assumption that \n alone will work).

The SELECT * FROM \1; section is used to print the string as seen, except \1 is replaced with the matched characters as before (which will be the table name).