replace characters in notepad++ BUT exclude characters inside single quotation marks(2nd)

Question

replace characters in notepad++ BUT exclude characters inside single quotation marks

Sorry to all users (especially to Avinash Raj) who answered already 1st similiar question - I did simply forget the 2nd kind of string. (And (that is the sad thing) - I'm not able to adjust the solution from 1st similiar question to the 2nd kind of string...)

I have TWO different strings in this kind:

SELECT column_name FROM table_name WHERE column_name IN ('A' , 'st9u' ,'Meyer', ....);
WHERE    a.object_type IN (' 'TABLE'', ''MATEerialIZED VIE3W'   ')

I want replace all characters in notepad++ from upper to lower, BUT exclude from replacement characters inside single quotation marks.

condition: It exists no solid structure before/behind/between the single quotation marks part!

(That means - I can not use the keyword "IN" or signs like "," or "(" or ")" or ";" for this regex ...!)

The once thing is, that two structures for single quotation marks are possible: 'Word|Number' or ''Word|Number'' (but, as shown in 2nd example, with different number of spaces between every single quotation mark!).

target string (the characters inside single quotation marks have to stay unchangend):

select column_name from table_name where column_name in ('A' , 'st9u' ,'Meyer', ....);
where    a.object_type in (' 'TABLE'', ''MATerialIZED VIE3W'   ')

How can I exclude in notepad++ the single quotation marks part (from replacement)?

Answer 1

Could combine a recursive part for getting '... '.... abc '' and use \K for resetting after. This is the part that needs to be skipped. And using kind of the trick, matching remaining words in pipe:

'\s*(?0)?[^']*'\K|(\w+)

• (?0)? here the pattern is optionally pasted from start
• \s is a shorthand for whitespace character [ \t\r\n\f]
• \w is a short for word character [A-Za-z0-9_]

And replace with \L\1 to lower words captured inside the first capture group or \U\1 to upper.
Works for me in NP++ 6.7.9.2 with your sample data. See regex101 for testing the pattern.