How to replace text followed by a comma (,) or dot (.) in tab delimited file (txt)?

I am new to autohotkey. I have a script which helps me to shorten those words that I don't need, and I am having a problem when trying to replace text that followed by a comma or a dot, Here is my script:

#NoEnv
#SingleInstance force
SetWorkingDir, %A_ScriptDir%
SendMode, Input
; -- Ctrl + SPACE -> Select all text + replace whole words only + title case
^SPACE::
NonCapitalized := "a|an|in|is|of|the|this|with" ; List of words that shouldn't be capitalized, separated by pipes
ReplacementsFile := "replacements.txt" ; Path to replacements file (tab delimited file with 2 columns, UTF-8-BOM, CR+LF)

Send, ^a ; Selects all text
Gosub, SelectToClip ; Copies the selected text to the clipboard
FileRead, Replacements, % ReplacementsFile ; Reads the replacements file
If ErrorLevel ; Error message if file is not found
{
MsgBox, % "File not found: " ReplacementsFile
Return
}

StringUpper, Clipboard, Clipboard, T ; Whole clipboard to title case
Clipboard := RegExReplace(Clipboard, "i)(?<![!?.]) b(" NonCapitalized ")b", " $L1") ; Changes to lowercase all words from the list "NonCapitalized", except those preceded by new line/period/exclamation mark/question mark
pos := 0
While pos := RegExMatch(Replacements, "m`a)^([^t]+)t(.*)$", FoundReplace, pos + 1) ; Gets all replacements from the tab delimited file
Clipboard := RegExReplace(Clipboard, "i)b" FoundReplace1 "b", FoundReplace2) ; Replaces all occurrences in the clipboard

; add exceptions
Clipboard := StrReplace(Clipboard, "Vice President,", "")
Clipboard := StrReplace(Clipboard, "Director,", "")
Clipboard := StrReplace(Clipboard, "Senior Vice President,", "")

; = End of exceptions

Clipboard := RegExReplace(Clipboard, "^s+|s+(?=([s,;:.]))|s$") ; Removes extra spaces
Send, ^v ; Pastes the clipboard
Return

SelectToClip:
Clipboard := ""
Send, ^c
ClipWait, 0
If ErrorLevel
Exit
Sleep, 50
Return


and here is a part of my replacements file:

Chief Operating, Financial Officer CFO & COO
Head,
President,


My question is how can I add text that followed by a comma(,) or a dot(.) right in Tab Delimited file instead of making more lines in AHK file? Because as you know it doesn't understand comma and dot as a text.

Many thanks for your time and your help!!

1 Answer
1

Please indent, or your code will be much harder to read.

In regex, the b assertion requires a sequence of a word character and a non-word character, which kept your code from working on strings starting with commas or dots, non-word characters.

b

...b, and B because they are defined in terms of w and W.
...
A word boundary is a position in the subject string where the current character and the previous character do not both match w or W (i.e. one matches w and the other matches W), or the start or end of the string if the first or last character matches w, respectively.

The following's tested to work:

#NoEnv
#SingleInstance force
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%
SendMode Input
; -- Ctrl + SPACE -> Select all text + replace whole words only + title case
^SPACE::
FunctionNameOfYourChoice() {
; Using static vars allows you to avoid reading the file over and over on each key press.
Static NonCapitalized := "a|an|in|is|of|the|this|with" ; List of words that shouldn't be capitalized, separated by pipes
, ReplacementsFile := "replacements.txt" ; Path to replacements file (tab delimited file with 2 columns, UTF-8-BOM, CR+LF)
, Replacements := ReadReplacements(ReplacementsFile)

Send ^a ; Selects all text
SelectToClip() ; Copies the selected text to the clipboard
If ErrorLevel { ; Error message if file is not found
MsgBox % "File not found: " ReplacementsFile
Return
}

; 3. StringUpper is deprecated in v2.
; 4. Better to work on a plain variable than on the clipboard in terms of performance and reliability.
cbCnt := Format("{:T}", Clipboard) ; Whole clipboard to title case
; Changes to lowercase all words from the list "NonCapitalized", except those preceded by new line/period/exclamation mark/question mark
cbCnt := RegExReplace(cbCnt, "i)(?<![!?.]) b(" NonCapitalized ")b", " $L1")
; Goes through each pair of search and replacement strings
Loop Parse, Replacements, `n, `r
FoundReplace := StrSplit(A_LoopField, "`t")
; Replaces all occurrences in the clipboard
, cbCnt := RegExReplace(cbCnt, "i)(?<!w)Q" FoundReplace.1 "E(?!w)", FoundReplace.2) ; 5.
cbCnt := RegExReplace(cbCnt, "(?<=w-)([a-z])", "$U1") ; 6.
/*
; Now the following can be included in the replacements.txt file.
cbCnt := StrReplace(cbCnt, "Vice President,")
cbCnt := StrReplace(cbCnt, "Director,")
cbCnt := StrReplace(cbCnt, "Senior Vice President,")
*/
; Removes extra spaces
; This also removes all newlines. Are you sure you want to do this?
Clipboard := RegExReplace(cbCnt, "^s+|s+(?=([s,;:.]))|s$")
Send ^v ; Pastes the clipboard
}

SelectToClip() {
Clipboard := ""
Send ^c
ClipWait 0.5 ; Specifying 0 wouldn't be a very good idea.
If ErrorLevel
Exit
Sleep 50
}

ReadReplacements(path) {
FileRead, Replacements, % path
Return Replacements
}


Yeah, there was a typo in the second regex (the first assertion in it), which has been corrected. The issue with "and" won't be repeated.

I added another RegExReplace as a less than graceful, makeshift measure for addressing the problem with hyphenated words you described, but note that it is inherently a non-trivial problem since the capitalization of those depends on semantics.

RegExReplace

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