Notepad++ How to delete everything before the first Colon

Example Text:

test3:orange;mango
test324:cherry;peach
test35:apple;pear

I want to get delete the 'test' part on every line.

I know there is an expression for deleting everything before the first colon.

2 Answers

• Ctrl+H
• Find what: ^[^:]+ or ^[^:]+: if you want to remove also the colon
• Replace with: LEAVE EMPTY
• check Wrap around
• check Regular expression
• Replace all

Explanation:

^ : beginning of line [^:]+ : 1 or more any character that is not a colon : : a colon (only if you want to remove it)

Result for given example:

:orange;mango
:cherry;peach
:apple;pear

OR

orange;mango
cherry;peach
apple;pear

Open the "Find and Replace Dialogue" (Ctrl + H assuming Windows) and enable the Regualar Expression search mode. The following regular expression in the search box will highlight "test" followed by any text up to and including the colon:

^(test).*:

You can leave the "Replace With" box empty and click "Replace All" to simply delete all instances in a file, or enter a colon in the "Replace With" box to keep the colon.

See the image below for reference

You can learn more about Regular Expressions from Microsoft's Regular Expression Language - Quick Reference