Regex search with limited new lines - regex

Question

I have the following text:
KN_Divers_Blau | -6.429897 8.010333 -0.80 0.422 -22.14101 9.28122
Ind_ROA_Ave | .3407456 .3389998 1.01 0.315 -.3241539 1.005645
Ind_Tobin_Q1_Ave | -.5065654 .2104229 -2.41 0.016 -.9192797 -.0938511
Ind_Growth_Ave | -1.404911 1.852805 -0.76 0.448 -5.038922 2.229101
Pat_Dum | -18.31015 5.452194 -3.36 0.001 -29.00385 -7.616457
|
year |
1981 | -5.575117 2.805975 -1.99 0.047 -11.07863 -.0715993
1982 | -6.171125 5.447273 -1.13 0.257 -16.85517 4.512919
1983 | -11.8282 8.84588 -1.34 0.181 -29.17812 5.521726
1984 | -20.39602 11.73682 -1.74 0.082 -43.41611 2.624069
1985 | -23.7097 14.29652 -1.66 0.097 -51.75028 4.330874
1986 | -29.43432 16.51849 -1.78 0.075 -61.83297 2.964339
1987 | -35.30922 18.5138 -1.91 0.057 -71.62137 1.002936
1988 | -49.09056 19.95166 -2.46 0.014 -88.22289 -9.958242
1989 | -53.98487 21.88913 -2.47 0.014 -96.91725 -11.05248
1990 | -67.58938 23.41111 -2.89 0.004 -113.5069 -21.67185
1991 | -78.59984 25.52294 -3.08 0.002 -128.6594 -28.54026
1992 | -88.89806 28.22778 -3.15 0.002 -144.2628 -33.53332
1993 | -98.40131 31.35391 -3.14 0.002 -159.8975 -36.90512
1994 | -102.953 33.25041 -3.10 0.002 -168.1689 -37.73712
1995 | -116.2812 37.25681 -3.12 0.002 -189.355 -43.20726
1996 | -118.0298 38.76035 -3.05 0.002 -194.0527 -42.00698
1997 | -118.4325 38.4338 -3.08 0.002 -193.8149 -43.05017
1998 | -123.8912 37.96394 -3.26 0.001 -198.352 -49.43038
1999 | -128.3908 39.44807 -3.25 0.001 -205.7626 -51.01913
2000 | -133.2699 40.31404 -3.31 0.001 -212.3401 -54.19972
2001 | -126.159 37.63045 -3.35 0.001 -199.9658 -52.35232
2002 | -119.8247 36.05833 -3.32 0.001 -190.5479 -49.10146
2003 | -109.2157 34.54755 -3.16 0.002 -176.9758 -41.45563
2004 | -114.1801 33.58204 -3.40 0.001 -180.0465 -48.31378
2005 | 0 (omitted)
|
_cons | -187.8645 62.81122 -2.99 0.003 -311.0597 -64.66936
KN_Divers_Blau | -6.57637 8.068413 -0.82 0.415 -22.4014 9.248663
Ind_ROA_Ave | .3641781 .3411348 1.07 0.286 -.3049088 1.033265
Ind_Tobin_Q1_Ave | -.5070564 .2105863 -2.41 0.016 -.9200911 -.0940217
Ind_Growth_Ave | -1.424116 1.871656 -0.76 0.447 -5.095101 2.246869
Pat_Dum | -18.51642 5.463958 -3.39 0.001 -29.23319 -7.799652
|
year |
1981 | -4.660021 2.721933 -1.71 0.087 -9.998702 .678659
1982 | -5.557028 5.497126 -1.01 0.312 -16.33885 5.224794
1983 | -10.63977 8.795378 -1.21 0.227 -27.89063 6.611104
1984 | -18.76668 11.39263 -1.65 0.100 -41.1117 3.578331
1985 | -23.61831 14.32697 -1.65 0.099 -51.71861 4.481984
1986 | -29.10203 16.61986 -1.75 0.080 -61.6995 3.495445
1987 | -34.29028 18.46377 -1.86 0.063 -70.50431 1.923745
1988 | -48.44084 19.75174 -2.45 0.014 -87.18104 -9.70065
1989 | -54.73721 22.04372 -2.48 0.013 -97.97281 -11.50162
1990 | -67.16001 23.65404 -2.84 0.005 -113.554 -20.76601
1991 | -77.92565 25.97627 -3.00 0.003 -128.8744 -26.97694
1992 | -88.53438 28.49949 -3.11 0.002 -144.432 -32.63673
1993 | -97.72113 31.57967 -3.09 0.002 -159.6601 -35.78213
1994 | -102.3819 33.38187 -3.07 0.002 -167.8557 -36.90815
1995 | -115.8907 37.23702 -3.11 0.002 -188.9258 -42.85566
1996 | -118.6755 39.02702 -3.04 0.002 -195.2214 -42.12961
1997 | -118.675 38.75563 -3.06 0.002 -194.6886 -42.66145
1998 | -124.622 38.53307 -3.23 0.001 -200.1991 -49.04492
1999 | -128.1722 39.91359 -3.21 0.001 -206.4569 -49.88741
2000 | -133.1516 40.6607 -3.27 0.001 -212.9017 -53.40144
2001 | -126.7362 38.51777 -3.29 0.001 -202.2833 -51.18914
2002 | -119.7739 36.83191 -3.25 0.001 -192.0145 -47.53344
2003 | -108.5075 34.97694 -3.10 0.002 -177.1097 -39.90524
2004 | -111.8748 33.35352 -3.35 0.001 -177.2929 -46.45662
2005 | 0 (omitted)
|
_cons | -178.691 61.08993 -2.93 0.003 -298.5101 -58.87189
And am looking for a regex expression that removes all the years, so the output would like something this:
KN_Divers_Blau | -6.429897 8.010333 -0.80 0.422 -22.14101 9.28122
Ind_ROA_Ave | .3407456 .3389998 1.01 0.315 -.3241539 1.005645
Ind_Tobin_Q1_Ave | -.5065654 .2104229 -2.41 0.016 -.9192797 -.0938511
Ind_Growth_Ave | -1.404911 1.852805 -0.76 0.448 -5.038922 2.229101
Pat_Dum | -18.31015 5.452194 -3.36 0.001 -29.00385 -7.616457
|
|
_cons | -187.8645 62.81122 -2.99 0.003 -311.0597 -64.66936
KN_Divers_Blau | -6.57637 8.068413 -0.82 0.415 -22.4014 9.248663
Ind_ROA_Ave | .3641781 .3411348 1.07 0.286 -.3049088 1.033265
Ind_Tobin_Q1_Ave | -.5070564 .2105863 -2.41 0.016 -.9200911 -.0940217
Ind_Growth_Ave | -1.424116 1.871656 -0.76 0.447 -5.095101 2.246869
Pat_Dum | -18.51642 5.463958 -3.39 0.001 -29.23319 -7.799652
|
|
_cons | -178.691 61.08993 -2.93 0.003 -298.5101 -58.87189
I'm extremely new to regex, and have tried searching for the following and replace it with nothing in Notepad++:
year.*[\n].*1981.*[\n].*2005
The problem is it finds all the values in between the first years columns and the second one and removes everything in between.
Is there a way to have the search term find each years column once? (So in my example, it would find and replace the years column twice in total)
Many thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You may use the following pattern:
^\s*year.*(?:[\r\n]+\s*\d{4}\b.*)*[\r\n]+
..and replace with an empty string.
Demo.
Breakdown:
^ Beginning of line.
\s* Match zero or more whitespace characters.
year.* Match "year" followed by any number of characters.
(?: Start of a non-capturing group.
[\r\n]+ Match one or more line-break character.
\s* Match zero or more whitespace characters.
\d{4}\b.* Match four digits followed by any number of characters.
) Close the non-capturing group.
* Match zero or more occurrences of the previous group.
[\r\n]+ Match one or more line-break character.