Find CRLF in Notepad++

330
votes

How can I find/replace all CR/LF characters in Notepad++?

I am looking for something equivalent to the ^p special character in Microsoft Word.

18
regexnotepad++
Just to build a little on what 'thenonhacker' was mentioning. We use ULtraEdit-32 on the job, and working with EDI files (x.12), we often have to wrap or unwrap data. The 2 most common Search & Replace strings are "^p" & "~". going one way will replace the "~" with a CR/LF for easier reading of each segment. Going the other way puts the file back into the format the EDI translator needs. For lazy people like myself, I just have those map'd to keys for easy of use. - DavidGrove
Though not related, but helpful. I visited this page after searching a method to convert UNIX text file to Windows format in Windows. This is what I did and worked, CTRL+H, select "Search Mode: Regular Expression". "Find What: $" and "Replace with : \r". Copy paste the content into Notepad or save it to disc. - Guru
Yay! Notepad++6.0 does bring the support of PCRE: regex like [\r\n]+ now work. I have updated my answer, and will celebrate! - VonC
@VonC: I guess I need to update all my [notepad++] answers as well :) - BoltClock♦
Seems nobody has mentioned escape sequence \R yet which matches a generic newline; that is, anything considered a linebreak sequence... - bobble bubble

18 Answers

424
votes

[\r\n]+ should work too

Update March, 26th 2012, release date of Notepad++ 6.0:

OMG, it actually does work now!!!

PCRE regexp in Notepad++

Original answer 2008 (Notepad++ 4.x) - 2009-2010-2011 (Notepad++ 5.x)

Actually no, it does not seem to work with regexp...

But if you have Notepad++ 5.x, you can use the 'extended' search mode and look for \r\n. That does find all your CRLF.

(I realize this is the same answer than the others, but again, 'extended mode' is only available with Notepad++ 4.9, 5.x and more)

Since April 2009, you have a wiki article on the Notepad++ site on this topic:
"How To Replace Line Ends, thus changing the line layout".
(mentioned by georgiecasey in his/her answer below)

Some relevant extracts includes the following search processes:

Simple search (Ctrl+F), Search Mode = Normal

You can select an EOL in the editing window.

  • Just move the cursor to the end of the line, and type Shift+Right Arrow.
  • or, to select EOL with the mouse, start just at the line end and drag to the start of the next line; dragging to the right of the EOL won't work. You can manually copy the EOL and paste it into the field for Unix files (LF-only).

Simple search (Ctrl+F), Search Mode = Extended

The "Extended" option shows \n and \r as characters that could be matched.
As with the Normal search mode, Notepad++ is looking for the exact character.
Searching for \r in a UNIX-format file will not find anything, but searching for \n will. Similarly, a Macintosh-format file will contain \r but not \n.

Simple search (Ctrl+F), Search Mode = Regular expression

Regular expressions use the characters ^ and $ to anchor the match string to the beginning or end of the line. For instance, searching for return;$ will find occurrences of "return;" that occur with no subsequent text on that same line. The anchor characters work identically in all file formats.
The '.' dot metacharacter does not match line endings.

[Tested in Notepad++ 5.8.5]: a regular expression search with an explicit \r or \n does not work (contrary to the Scintilla documentation).
Neither does a search on an explicit (pasted) LF, or on the (invisible) EOL characters placed in the field when an EOL is selected. Advanced search (Ctrl+R) without regexp

Ctrl+M will insert something that matches newlines. They will be replaced by the replace string.
I recommend this method as the most reliable, unless you really need to use regex.
As an example, to remove every second newline in a double spaced file, enter Ctrl+M twice in the search string box, and once in the replace string box.

Advanced search (Ctrl+R) with Regexp.

Neither Ctrl+M, $ nor \r\n are matched.

The same wiki also mentions the Hex editor alternative:

  • Type the new string at the beginning of the document.
  • Then select to view the document in Hex mode.
  • Select one of the new lines and hit Ctrl+H.
  • While you have the Replace dialog box up, select on the background the new replacement string and Ctrl+C copy it to paste it in the Replace with text input.
  • Then Replace or Replace All as you wish.

Note: the character selected for new line usually appears as 0a.
It may have a different value if the file is in Windows Format. In that case you can always go to Edit -> EOL Conversion -> Convert to Unix Format, and after the replacement switch it back and Edit -> EOL Conversion -> Convert to Windows Format.

23
votes

It appears that this is a FAQ, and the resolution offered is:

Simple search (Ctrl+H) without regexp

You can turn on View/Show End of Line or view/Show All, and select the now visible newline characters. Then when you start the command some characters matching the newline character will be pasted into the search field. Matches will be replaced by the replace string, unlike in regex mode.

Note 1: If you select them with the mouse, start just before them and drag to the start of the next line. Dragging to the end of the line won't work.

Note 2: You can't copy and paste them into the field yourself.

Advanced search (Ctrl+R) without regexp

Ctrl+M will insert something that matches newlines. They will be replaced by the replace string.

11
votes

On the Replace dialog, you want to set the search mode to "Extended". Normal or Regular Expression modes wont work.

Then just find "\r\n" (or just \n for unix files or just \r for mac format files), and set the replace to whatever you want.

9
votes

I've not had much luck with \r\n regular expressions from the find/replace window.

However, this works in Notepad++ v4.1.2:

  1. Use the "View | Show end of line" menu to enable display of end of line characters. (Carriage return line feeds should show up as a single shaded CRLF 'character'.)

  2. Select one of the CRLF 'characters' (put the cursor just in front of one, hold down the SHIFT key, and then pressing the RIGHT CURSOR key once).

  3. Copy the CRLF character to the clipboard.

  4. Make sure that you don't have the find or find/replace dialog open.

  5. Open the find/replace dialog. The 'Find what' field shows the contents of the clipboard: in this case the CRLF character - which shows up as 2 'box characters' (presumably it's an unprintable character?)

  6. Ensure that the 'Regular expression' option is OFF.

Now you should be able to count, find, or replace as desired.

6
votes

Image with CRLF

enter image description here

Image without CRLF

enter image description here

4
votes

The way I found it to work is by using the Replace function, and using "\n", with the "Extended" mode. I'm using version 5.8.5.

4
votes

In 2013, v6.13 or later, use:

Menu Edit → EOL Conversion → Windows Format.

2
votes

Assuming it has a "regular expressions" search, look for \r\n. I prefer \r?\n, because some files don't use carriage returns.

EDIT: Thanks for the feedback, whoever voted this down. I have learned that... well, nothing, because you provided no feedback. Why is this wrong?

2
votes

Use the advanced search option (Ctrl + R) and use the keyboard shortcut for CRLF (Ctrl + M) to insert a carriage return.

2
votes

If you need to do a complex regexp replacement including \r\n, you can workaround the limitation by a three-step approach:

  1. Replace all \r\n by a tag, let's say #GO# → Check 'Extended', replace \r\n by #GO#
  2. Perform your regexp, example removing multiline ICON="*" from an html bookmarks → Check regexp, replace ICON=.[^"]+.> by >
  3. Put back \r\n → Check 'Extended', replace #GO# by \r\n
2
votes

Go to View--> Show symbol-->Show all character // Its worked for me

1
votes

Make this setting. Menu-> View-> Show Symbol-> uncheck Show End of the Line

1
votes

I opened the file in Notepad++ and did a replacement in a few steps:

  1. Replace all "\r\n" with " \r\n"
  2. Replace all "; \r\n" with "\r\n"
  3. Replace all " \r\n" with " "

This puts all the breaks where they should be and removes those that are breaking up the file.

It worked for me.

1
votes

I was totally unable to do this in NP v6.9. I found it easy enough on Msoft Word (2K).

Open the doc, go to edit->replace.

Then in the bottom of the search box, click "more" then find the "Special" button and they have several things for you. For Dos style, I used the "paragraph" one. This is a cr lf pair in windows land.

0
votes

Just do a \r with a find and replace with a blank in the replace field so everything goes up to one line. Then do a find and replace (in my case by semi colon) and replace with ;\n

:) -T&C

0
votes

To change a document of separate lines into a single line, with each line forming one entry in a comma separated list:

  1. ctrl+f to open the search/replacer.
  2. Click the "Replace" tab.
  3. Fill the "Find what" entry with "\r\n".
  4. Fill the "Replace with" entry with "," or ", " (depending on preference).
  5. Un-check the "Match whole word" checkbox (the important bit that eludes logic).
  6. Check the "Extended" radio button.
  7. Click the "Replace all" button.

These steps turn e.g.

foo bar

bar baz

baz foo

into:

foo bar,bar baz,baz foo

or: (depending on preference)

foo bar, bar baz, baz foo

0
votes

Maybe you can use TextFX plugins

In TextFX, go to textfx edit → delete blank lines

0
votes

To find any kind of a line break sequence use the following regex construct:

\R

To find and select consecutive line break sequences, add + after \R: \R+.

Make sure you turn on Regular expression mode:

enter image description here

It matches:

  • U+000DU+000A -CRLF` sequence
  • U+000A - LINE FEED, LF
  • U+000B - LINE TABULATION, VT
  • U+000C - FORM FEED, FF
  • U+000D - CARRIAGE RETURN, CR
  • U+0085 - NEXT LINE, NEL
  • U+2028 - LINE SEPARATOR
  • U+2029 - PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR