Define Substring - [$A$]

The Define Substring dialog is available from the Advanced Find & Replace dialog.

When a text block is found (using Advanced Find and Replace dialog), you can extract up to three sub-strings from that text and store them in $A$, $B$ or $C$ special variables. The sub-strings can then be reinserted back into the replacement text. Example: Replace text = '<a $A$>'. Hep will refer to $A$ only, however this dialog is also used when editing $B$ and $C$ substrings.

[New for FAR HTML 5] FAR 5 introduces the $A*$ command. It uses the same $A$ definition (that you setup using this dialog), however if your replace text contains $A*$ instead of $A$ here's what happens... Where $A$ is a substring extracted from the current match string, $A*$ is a substring string extracted from the current file.

This is an important concept to grasp. $A$ is recalculated on every search match -- The $A$ substring is extracted from the matching text result. But $A*$ is recalculated once as each file is loaded (The recalculation rules defined using this dialog).

The rest of this help topic describes $A$. But please remember $A*$.

Note: Some text entry fields are greyed. This indicates that they contain no text and will not contribute to the search. They are not disabled. As soon as you type in text they will become un-greyed and contribute to the search.

Use Original String as Substring

• When checked the $A$ substring is set to the original match string (found at search time and when opening this dialog). When selected, all controls in the "Define Substring" group box are disabled.

Define Substring

The Advanced Find and Replace dialog has just found a match string. Now we must define a substring and place the result into $A$. If no match is found then $A$ remains empty.

• Find Substring No#: Normally set to 1. If the matching string contains several occurrences of a substring then you can force it to match occurrence 1, 2 or 3 etc.
• Between Start text/and End text: Performs a mini search on the match string. Both Start and End fields must contain at least 1 character.
• Result should include Start/end text: Uncheck this box to extract only the text between the Start and End text. Check this box to extract the text between and including the Start and End text.
• Containing Text: Enter the text that must be found in the substring for a match. When the field is empty the control is greyed and the Contains Text command is disabled.
• Not Containing Text: Enter the text that must not be found in the substring for a match. When the field is empty the control is greyed and the Not Contains Text command is disabled.

Example 1:

Let's say we are performing an Advanced Search and Replace matching on strings
like <a href="http://helpwaregroup.com" target="_blank">. Using substrings we can extract just the link text into $A$.

$A$.Find Substring No#: 1
$A$.between start text: href="
$A$.and end text: "
$A$.Result should include Start/end text: NO

Thus $A$ will contain the text:  http://helpwaregroup.com
and the Advanced Replace text may now be defined as say '<a href="$A$">'
Thus the objective was to simplify all anchor tags.

Replace Text In Substring

This section performs a mini find and replace on the $A$ substring created in the section above.

• Delete text starting with/Ending with: Performs a mini search on $A$ string. Specify either Start text, OR both Start and End text. If Start text is empty then no action is performed. If End text is empty then the End text field remains greyed and only the Start text is used.
• Replace Deleted text with: If a match is found then replace with this text.
• Delete text mode:
  
  Normal: Replace the matched text entirely with replace text (single replace only).
  Between: If both start & end text are specified then replace only the text between start & end text.
  Up to text: Only the text up to (not including) the matching text is replaced.
  Up to text and including: The text up to and including the matching text is replaced.
  After text: Only the text after the matching text is replaced.
  After text and including: Replace the matching text and the text following the matching text.
  Normal (replace all): Same as "Normal" but replaces all occurrence found. This command is at the end of the list because it was added just recently.
   

Example 2:

Let's say we have an Advanced Find and Replace matching all <a ...> tags. So let's use $A$ to remove all target="*" text from the <a ...> tags while preserving all other text in the <a ..> tag.

$A$.Find Substring No#: 1
$A$.between start text: '<a '
$A$.and end text: '>'
$A$.Result should include Start/end text: 'NO'

If the Advanced Find and Replace match was <a href="http://helpwaregroup.com" target="_blank">
then $A$ will now contain the text: href="http://helpwaregroup.com" target="_blank"

Lets now delete the target="_blank" part.

$A$.Delete text starting with:  target="
$A$.Ending with: "
$A$.Replace deleted text with: <empty string>
$A$.Delete mode: Normal

Thus $A$ now contains <a href="http://helpwaregroup.com">. The target info has been removed.

Back in the Advanced Find and Replace dialog we can now set the replace text = <a $A$>