RegEx to split paragraphs into single sentences?

[Vincent_Vincent]

Hi there
Does anyone know if it would be possible to use a Regular Expression to turn all sentences of a document into their own single paragraphs.

I mean (all at once) replace period-space with period-carriage return ;
?-space with ?-carriage return ;
!-space with !-carriage return ;
…-space with …-carriage return.

And if so, would it be then possible to include “followed by a capital letter” as a condition ?
So that → Isn’t it so ? he said. ← wouldn’t split.

Thanks

[AntoniDol]

@Vincent_Vincent

So that → Isn’t it so ? he said.

“Isn’t it so? Vincent said” would Split.

[Vincent_Vincent]

Yeah. Nothing is perfect.
I can’t think of anything to do in such a case.
On the good side, I write in french, and the name comes after for us.

C’est pas comme ça ? demande alors Vincent.

[AntoniDol]

@Vincent_Vincent

Does anyone know if it would be possible to use a Regular Expression to turn all sentences of a document into their own single paragraphs.

This works: Search for: ([\?\!\.\…])\s([A-Z]) replace with: $1\n$2

Explanation and Test at: RegEx101

Beware: the $2 capture group may not work due to a bug in the RegEx implementation in Scrivener. You could remove ([A-Z]) and $2, but the line without a capital letter in the next sentence will then split.

[Vincent_Vincent]

Thanks Antoni.
Ok. Just tried it out.
It only partially worked :
It introduced \n to where the splits should have been instead of a carriage return.
And it did so even where it wasn’t followed by a capital letter.

I just noticed that it actually replaced the space by \n, it did not just add it.

Now I tried with “ignore case” unchecked :
It is better, the formula now respects the “followed by a capital letter” condition. But it is still just replacing the space following the ? ! . or … by \n.

Same results using find rather than project replace.

So, basically, I just need \n to end up being a carriage return instead…

[drmajorbob]

@Vincent_Vincent

So, basically, I just need \n to end up being a carriage return instead…

Why? The lines are not separate paragraphs without a \n (¶) line break.

[Vincent_Vincent]

??? I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. Sorry.
Did you look at my screenshots ?

[drmajorbob]

It means \n is the paragraph break character.

[Vincent_Vincent]

That worked :
I replaced \n with a carriage return

[Vincent_Vincent]

@drmajorbob

It means \n is the paragraph break character.

I see. But I want my paragraph to actually be split (in the editor). Not only after compile.

[drmajorbob]

I don’t know what language you’re speaking now. \n is the paragraph break. Carriage return makes it look like separate paragraphs, but they’re not.

[Vincent_Vincent]

You know what would help ? You looking at my screenshots first.

And I think you are just uselessly confusing me now. They ARE separate paragraphs.

This is what my previous screenshot should have been (don’t know how I managed to mess that up) :

Carriage return instead of /n in the RegEx formula makes all the splits be new paragraphs. It works.

Thanks Antoni.

[drmajorbob]

¶ is a paragraph break, not a carriage return.

[Vincent_Vincent]

[AntoniDol]

@Vincent_Vincent

That worked :
I replaced \n with a carriage return

Glad that worked. \n should’ve worked as well, but the RegEx implementation in Scrivener is… incomplete.

@Vincent_Vincent

I just noticed that it actually replaced the space by \n, it did not just add it.

If you need that space you could either move the ")"after the “\s” or add a space after $1 in the substitution.

Do you usually add a space before a question or an exclamation mark? Seems odd to me.

[Vincent_Vincent]

@AntoniDol

If you need that space you could either move the ")"after the “\s” or add a space after $1 in the substitution.

Nope. I’m fine without an extra space. But thanks for the info.

@AntoniDol

Do you usually add a space before a question or an exclamation mark? Seems odd to me.

That is French punctuation.
I know my test sentence is English, but might as well run the test as if French, just in case.
(And yes I do it a lot in my posts too. I find it easier to read. Or maybe I’m just too used to it. )

[drmajorbob]

I think there’s confusion because of the difference between Windows and Mac where CR and LF are concerned, but here’s a simple demo of the difference, on a Mac at least. It may not be relevant to the behavior of Scrivener on Windows, but it is relevant to the meaning of the symbols ¶ and ⏎. In the 1st screenshot, you’ll see a few paragraphs separated by ¶s (as always) together with a Find/Replace dialog prepared to replace ¶ with ⏎.

In the 2nd screenshot, you see the result of performing the replace once. The paragraph after it still starts on a new line, but now it’s part of the previous paragraph, which you can see from the fact that it has no indentation.

@Vincent_Vincent 's last screenshot suggests I was wrong about the nomenclature.

I thought carriage return = line feed = ⏎.

Instead it seems that

1. line feed = ⏎
2. carriage return = paragraph break = ¶

Mea culpa!

[SWM]

FWIW, this variation also seems to work:

Search for:

([.?:;!…])( )([A-Z])

Replace with:

$1\n$3

… although in Scrivener it seems we need to use a paragraph break in the replace field:

Test: regex 101

[AntoniDol]

@SWM

([.?:;!…])( )([A-Z]) Replace with: $1\n$3

In RexEx many different solutions are possible.

This would split the sentences on “:” and “;” too…

[SWM]

@AntoniDol

This would split the sentences on “:” and “;” too…

Indeed, yes. Configurable by the user to add or remove any punctuation points they want.

I personally like the restriction of searching for a single space ( ) rather than white-space \s, which, as I understand things, matches spaces, new lines, carriage returns, and tabs.

Good to have options.