CMD -F Find

Question

Is there a way to use command "F" to find a range of numbers and replace with 0
My situation is this: I would like to zero out any numbers between 1 and 2000 between the parentheses
%%864%%
Can that be done and What about Text Edit if I cant do it with Appleworks
Thanks
-Sandy

Answer 1

Hello Sandy Estabrook,
I'm puzzled. Are you saying that both 'filename.txt' and 'filename.txt.bak' have the same unchanged contents?
As explained more than once, 'filename.txt.bak' is a backup copy of the ORIGINAL 'filename.txt' and therefore it is expected that 'filename.txt.bak' has the original contents. You may totally ignore the 'filename.txt.bak' file for now.
Meanwhile 'filename.txt' itself should have been edited as requested. If it appears unchanged after running the script, it means there's something unexpected.
To make things clear, follow the procedure below.
(The source file name is assumed to be 'filename.txt' here.)
1) Close the file 'filename.txt', if it is opened in any application.
2) Run the script, choose the file 'filename.txt' and let the script finish its job.
3) Open the 'filename.txt' (not 'filename.txt.bak') and check its contents.
If everything works as expected, the text should have been modified such that, e.g., %%123%% is replaced by %%0%% (because 2000 > 123) whereas %%12345%% remains as %12345%% (because 12345 > 2000).
If the contents of 'filename.txt' is not changed as expected, the first thing I'd suspect is that the search pattern is not matching the target string in file. In such case, we need to know a sample of the EXACT string stored in the file.
(By the way, the 'filename.txt' may be coded in UTF-8 or MacRoman, but NOT in UTF-16. If it is coded in UTF-16, resave it as UTF-8 in TextEdit before running the script.)
Good luck,
Hiroto
P.S. As for the said text - {button returned:"", gave up:true} - displayed in the result window (or pane?) of Script Editor, it is the result of the last statement executed in the script and you can safely ignore it.
P.P.S. I found the last code you posted does not have brackets around 0-9. Perhaps it is due to the fora software's interference. But perhaps not. Use the code listed below, in case.
--SCRIPT1
main()
on main()
-- accept source text file
set a to choose file of type {"public.plain-text"} ¬
with prompt "Select the source text file." without invisibles
display dialog "You're modifying the file :" & return & return & a with icon 1
set infile_ to quoted form of POSIX path of a
-- edit its contents
set pl to "s/(%%)([0-9]+)(%%)/{if ($2 <= 2000 ){$1."0".$3} else {$&}}/oge;"
set sh to "perl -pi.bak -e " & quoted form of pl & " " & infile_
do shell script sh
-- finis
display dialog "Done" with icon 1 giving up after 3
end main
--END OF SCRIPT1