How can I use a regex find/replace to wrap to new lines so I'll never have more than 20 symbols per line?

I found this:

Find: \s(?<=.{20})
Replace: $0\r\n

It would be perfect, but it leaves words in line bigger than 20 symbols if they started before 20 symbols.

I need a similar expression, but if the last item makes the line bigger it should also go to the new line, so the final line would have always have <20 symbols.

I know I have done it before long ago, perhaps with some plugin, but I can't make it work now. How can I do this?

How can I use a regex find/replace to wrap to new lines so I'll never have more than 20 symbols per line?

I found this:

Find: \s(?<=.{20})
Replace: $0\r\n

It would be perfect, but it leaves words in line bigger than 20 symbols if they started before 20 symbols.

I need a similar expression, but if the last item makes the line bigger it should also go to the new line, so the final line would have always have <20 symbols.

I know I have done it before long ago, perhaps with some plugin, but I can't make it work now. How can I do this?

• regex
• notepad++

Share Follow edited Mar 7 at 18:19 Joel Coehoorn 417k114114 gold badges578578 silver badges815815 bronze badges asked Mar 7 at 18:15 Jo MakeinJo Makein 6911 silver badge33 bronze badges 3

• 3 What if you have a single item on the line that is itself longer than 20 character with no whitespace? Do you need to break that up somewhere? – Joel Coehoorn Commented Mar 7 at 18:23
• 1 You could make use of a capture group and use $1 in the replacement, or match 20 characters and use \K and replace with a newline – The fourth bird Commented Mar 7 at 18:25
• 3 Or capture, e.g. replace (.{1,20})(?:\h|$\R?) with $1\n (regex101 demo) – bobble bubble Commented Mar 8 at 13:57

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1 Answer 1

Sorted by: Reset to default 3

For word wrap it's kind of subjective where to put the line breaks.

For N characters, single pass regex it might be :

    (?:
       (?:
          (?>
             ( .{1,N} )                   # (1)
             (?:                           #  break types:                                                            
                $                             # EOS                                                                 
              | (?<= [^\S\r\n] )              # 1. - Behind a non-linebreak whitespace                           
                [^\S\r\n]?                    #      ( optionally accept an extra non-linebreak whitespace )     
              | (?<= [!,./:;?] )              # 2. - Behind sepcial punctuation breaks                              
                [^\S\r\n]?                    #      ( optionally accept an extra non-linebreak whitespace )     
              | (?=                           # 3. - Ahead a linebreak or special punctuation breaks                
                   \r? \n                                                                                 
                 | [#%&*\-@_]                                                                                
                )
              | [^\S\r\n]                     # 4. - Accept an extra non-linebreak whitespace                    
             )
          )
        | ( .{1,N} )                   # (2)
       )
       (?: \r? \n )?
     | (?: \r? \n )
    )

(?:(?:(?>(.{1,N})(?:$|(?<=[^\S\r\n])[^\S\r\n]?|(?<=[!,./:;?])[^\S\r\n]?|(?=\r?\n|[#%&*\-@_])|[^\S\r\n]))|(.{1,N}))(?:\r?\n)?|(?:\r?\n))

Replace $1$2\r\n