BBEDIT GREP CHEAT SHEET CODE
BBEDIT GREP CHEAT SHEET MAC

But by sorting using a value embedded in the log lines, I was able to immediately see the problem because the human eye is really good at seeing patterns and, in this case, huge runs of replicated values. In a recent example, because the log file in question had data from various StartDateTime values interleaved but sorted by 'log time', I could not understand the root of the issue I was debugging. In the sample above, StartDateTime was a Unix-based timestamp that, being numerical, allowed me to easily sort by that value as opposed to the timestamp on the log row itself. The power move here is that you can match text from the middle of each line and use it as the sorting key. The other killer tool is 'Sort Lines.': Sort Lines. It is especially useful when you have multiple files and are pulling line matches from each of them use 'Copy to clipboard' on each file and simply paste into a new document that has the consolidated lines. This command is awesome for high-level filtering of your data, especially if you have a very large initial file. Two huge features in BBEdit that build off the regular expression patterns are line matching and sorting, both of which I use heavily.įor line matching, there is the 'Process Lines Containing.' menu item, which allows you to pull lines out of the file and copy them to the clipboard or a new document in one fell swoop: Process Lines Containing. One benefit of something like, though, is the little cheat sheet at the bottom of the page if your grep fu is not as strong as it could be.īut search goes beyond just finding words in the file. This lets you immediately know you are selecting the right thing. To be totally up front about it, I can't say that I am an expert at regular expressions (who is?) and so I rely heavily on sites like to help me out.īBEdit has really nice feedback as you construct your patterns, and highlights text as you modify the pattern. Now that I am fairly comfortable with them, I strongly prefer them. It has taken me a long time to warm to regular expressions but because they are used everywhere it was a sink-or-swim kind of thing. I put searching and sorting together because both should rely on a common matching algorithm that is, ideally, based on grep-style regular expressions. But if your editor of choice does not do that in a simple and intuitive way, find another editor. This is a very common thing to do, so there is nothing magic about BBEdit here. BBEdit makes this easy to do, while filtering out whitespace and such. This can be important when you are running side-by-side tests and looking at log output to see what has changed.

Related to file handling is file differencing. If your files are much bigger than that, you might consider pre-filtering your data using grep or, at least, getting it open in BBEdit and then grepping the content into a smaller file for deeper analysis from there. Log files collected over an extended period of time, especially with elevated debug levels, can be very large and your text file cannot choke on them.īBEdit can easily chew through files of hundreds of megabytes, and even over 1Gb. File handlingĪ good text editor for debugging needs to handle large files. I'll drill into these a bit more, showing how BBEdit helps me solve problems. Be able to do smart comparisons between files.Be able to do (2) and possibly (3) on multiple files at once.Be able to do advanced sorting using grep-style (regular expression) patterns.Be able to do advanced searching using grep-style (regular expression) patterns.Be able to consume and efficiently work with large files.To be able successfully process text data, you need an editor that will:

BBEDIT GREP CHEAT SHEET CODE

Your source code is in text files, your log files are (generally) in text files, and just about any high-level diagnostic tool will allow its data to be exported into text files of some form.įor this reason, being able to manipulate text quickly, easily, and flexibly is a debugging power move. Text files are the lingua franca of software.

BBEDIT GREP CHEAT SHEET MAC

Because I am a Mac guy, I am focusing on BBEdit, but you can insert your favourite text editor into this discussion and hopefully map its equivalent features. In this post, I will focus on a tool I use all the time: BBEdit, by Bare Bones Software. While it is common to write simple tools during debugging, using COTS products that are focused on doing one thing well can greatly accelerate resolution of problems. However, any master debugger will have a set of go-to tools to elevate their game. Understanding the debugging process deeply is the key to becoming a master debugger.

Bbedit grep cheat sheet