notepad++ replacing parantheses with brackets - regex

Question

I am converting a code of mine from MATLAB to julia, thus I need to replace parentheses used for indexing: they are of the type () in MATLAB and of the type [] in julia. Functions parentheses are of the same type in both, i.e. ().
I thought that the fastest way to do this was to use Notepad++, finding all of the parenthes and then replacing them with brackets when need.
Anyhow it does not work as expected.
I won't copy all of the function I am converting now, but some parts as example:
x= coord(:,1);
y= coord(:,2);
natG_coord(1,1)= sqrt(1/3);
natG_coord(2,1)= -sqrt(1/3);
natG_coord(3,1)= -sqrt(1/3);
natG_coord(4,1)= sqrt(1/3);
for i=1:4
dNG(1,i)= (1+etaG(i))/4 + csiG(i)*(1+etaG(i))/2 - (1-etaG(i)^2)/4 - 2*csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i)^2)/4;
dNG(2,i)= -(1+etaG(i))/4 + csiG(i)*(1+etaG(i))/2 + (1-etaG(i)^2)/4 - 2*csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i)^2)/4;
dNG(3,i)= -(1-etaG(i))/4 + csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i))/2 + (1-etaG(i)^2)/4 - 2*csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i)^2)/4;
dNG(4,i)= (1-etaG(i))/4 + csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i))/2 - (1-etaG(i)^2)/4 - 2*csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i)^2)/4;
end
I tried finding \((.*)\) and replacing with [$1], but it does not get all of the parentheses. For instance, it gets the ones in declaring x and y, the sqrt value but does not get the natG_coord indexes. In the for cycle, it only gets the last expression of each line, i.e. (1-etaG(i)^2), but the external parenthes, not the etaG index (which is actually what I need to replace).
I cannot see a pattern in the choice and thus cannot come up with a solution.
Other solutions not to get mad doing this parenthesis by parenthesis is fine!
Thank you all for your help.
edit
#stribizhev: the final result should be this:
x= coord[:,1]
y= coord[:,2]
natG_coord[1,1]= sqrt(1/3)
natG_coord[2,1]= -sqrt(1/3)
natG_coord[3,1]= -sqrt(1/3)
natG_coord[4,1]= sqrt(1/3)
for i=1:4
dNG[1,i]= (1+etaG[i])/4 + csiG[i]*(1+etaG[i])/2 - (1-etaG[i]^2)/4 - 2*csiG[i]*(1-etaG[i]^2)/4
dNG[2,i]= -(1+etaG[i])/4 + csiG[i]*(1+etaG[i])/2 + (1-etaG[i]^2)/4 - 2*csiG[i]*(1-etaG[i]^2)/4
dNG[3,i]= -(1-etaG[i])/4 + csiG[i]*(1-etaG[i])/2 + (1-etaG[i]^2)/4 - 2*csiG[i]*(1-etaG[i]^2)/4
dNG[4,i]= (1-etaG[i])/4 + csiG[i]*(1-etaG[i])/2 - (1-etaG[i]^2)/4 - 2*csiG[i]*(1-etaG[i]^2)/4
end
What I get finding \((.*)\) and replacing with [$1] one time is:
x= coord[:,1];
y= coord[:,2];
natG_coord[1,1)= sqrt(1/3];
natG_coord[2,1)= -sqrt(1/3];
natG_coord[3,1)= -sqrt(1/3];
natG_coord[4,1)= sqrt(1/3];
for i=1:4
dNG[1,i)= (1+etaG(i))/4 + csiG(i)*(1+etaG(i))/2 - (1-etaG(i)^2)/4 - 2*csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i)^2]/4;
dNG[2,i)= -(1+etaG(i))/4 + csiG(i)*(1+etaG(i))/2 + (1-etaG(i)^2)/4 - 2*csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i)^2]/4;
dNG[3,i)= -(1-etaG(i))/4 + csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i))/2 + (1-etaG(i)^2)/4 - 2*csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i)^2]/4;
dNG[4,i)= (1-etaG(i))/4 + csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i))/2 - (1-etaG(i)^2)/4 - 2*csiG(i)*(1-etaG(i)^2]/4;
end
What I get finding \(((?>[^()]|(?R))*)\) and replacing all with [$1] one time is (I know you said several times, if I do it it'll replace every matching braces in the end):
x= coord[:,1];
y= coord[:,2];
natG_coord[1,1]= sqrt[1/3];
natG_coord[2,1]= -sqrt[1/3];
natG_coord[3,1]= -sqrt[1/3];
natG_coord[4,1]= sqrt[1/3];
for i=1:4
dNG[1,i]= [1+etaG(i)]/4 + csiG[i]*[1+etaG(i)]/2 - [1-etaG(i)^2]/4 - 2*csiG[i]*[1-etaG(i)^2]/4;
dNG[2,i]= -[1+etaG(i)]/4 + csiG[i]*[1+etaG(i)]/2 + [1-etaG(i)^2]/4 - 2*csiG[i]*[1-etaG(i)^2]/4;
dNG[3,i]= -[1-etaG(i)]/4 + csiG[i]*[1-etaG(i)]/2 + [1-etaG(i)^2]/4 - 2*csiG[i]*[1-etaG(i)^2]/4;
dNG[4,i]= [1-etaG(i)]/4 + csiG[i]*[1-etaG(i)]/2 - [1-etaG(i)^2]/4 - 2*csiG[i]*[1-etaG(i)^2]/4;
end
What I get finding \(([^()]*)\) replacing all with [$1] one time is:
x= coord[:,1];
y= coord[:,2];
natG_coord[1,1]= sqrt[1/3];
natG_coord[2,1]= -sqrt[1/3];
natG_coord[3,1]= -sqrt[1/3];
natG_coord[4,1]= sqrt[1/3];
for i=1:4
dNG[1,i]= (1+etaG[i])/4 + csiG[i]*(1+etaG[i])/2 - (1-etaG[i]^2)/4 - 2*csiG[i]*(1-etaG[i]^2)/4;
dNG[2,i]= -(1+etaG[i])/4 + csiG[i]*(1+etaG[i])/2 + (1-etaG[i]^2)/4 - 2*csiG[i]*(1-etaG[i]^2)/4;
dNG[3,i]= -(1-etaG[i])/4 + csiG[i]*(1-etaG[i])/2 + (1-etaG[i]^2)/4 - 2*csiG[i]*(1-etaG[i]^2)/4;
dNG[4,i]= (1-etaG[i])/4 + csiG[i]*(1-etaG[i])/2 - (1-etaG[i]^2)/4 - 2*csiG[i]*(1-etaG[i]^2)/4;
end
So the last one is exactly what I was looking for. Once I go with the "find next" command, I can decide whether they are indexing parantheses or not and substitute them or not (avoiding the sqrt function input, for instance).
Thank you very much for your help.

Answer 1

Since the \(([^()]*)\) (to replace with [$1]) worked for you, here is the explanation:
\(([^()]*)\)
Matches:
\( - an opening round bracket
([^()]*) - Capture group 1 matches zero or more characters other than ( and ) (with [^()]*)
\)- a closing round bracket
This regex above will match all last nested level parentheses, that do not have any parentheses inside them.
Answering Aaron's remark about replacing the parentheses inside the quoted strings, it is great that Notepad++ supports Boost conditional replacement patterns. We can match what we do not need to modify and replace with self, and use another replacement for the other matches.
(?<o1>"[^"\\]*(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*")|(?<o2>\(([^()]*)\))
And replace with (?{o1}$+{o1}:[$3]).
Note that "[^"\\]*(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*" matches C strings with escaped entities correctly and efficiently. The replacement pattern means to replace with the quoted string (if o1 group matched) or with [+Group 3 value+] (if the other group matched).
If you need to replace outer balanced parentheses, use
\(((?>[^()]|(?R))*)\)
And replace with [$1] (see demo). If you need to replace the overlapping parenthetical substrings, you will need to hit Replace All several times.
Regex explanation:
\( # an outer literal opening round bracket
( # start group 1
(?> # start of atomic group
[^()] # any character other than ( and )
| # OR
(?R) # recursively match the whole pattern
)* # end atomic group and repeat zero or more times
) # end of group 1
\) # match a literal closing round bracket
If the strings you need to replace those parentheses should be preceded with word characters, use
(\w+)(\(((?>[^()]|(?2))*)\))
And replace with $1[$3]. See demo
This regex uses a (?2) subroutine that just repeats the second capture group subpattern.
Now, avoiding to match these inside quoted strings. Assume we have var d = "r(string here)" and we do not want to turn the () to [] here. Instead of (\w+)(\(((?>[^()]|(?2))*)\)) (with $1[$3] replacement), use
(?<o1>"[^"\\]*(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*")|(?<o2>(\w+)(\(((?>[^()]|(?4))*)\)))
And (?{o1}$+{o1}:$3[$5]) as the replacement. This will keep var d = "r(string here)" string intact, and will turn var f = a(fg()g) into var f = a[fg()g].