Batch Find and Multiple Replace
Questions arise....
In what form do you have the 50 lists? Are they each stored under their own variable name? Or a single list of 50 sub-lists? Something else?
Does position in the list matter? It should be pretty simple to remove a "BK|P" item from any list that contains one, and tack a "BK|J" [etc.] item onto the front of the list. If the replacement needs to be in the same place, it's more complex but certainly possible.
Should the variants be generated by something like simply stepping through the alphabet, or do you have specific variants in mind?
Does it matter what final-letter variant goes into the entry in any given list? Or should whatever variant comes next be given to whatever list comes next?
50 is more than the available letters for after the | character. Should there be repeats after the alphabet is exhausted? Double letters? Numbers? Letter-number combinations like "BK|A1"? Punctuation characters?
Should "BK|P" be skipped over if stepping through the alphabet, or is it acceptable for one list [or more than one if repeats are allowed] to contain that in the end?
Etc., etc.
Kent Cooper, AIA 
@Kent1Cooper wrote:
Questions arise....
... and I guess the big one that didn't even occur to me before: What are these lists? I assumed an AutoLisp-type list of text string items, such as ("BK|P" "Manny" "Moe" "Jack"), but someone suggested using FIND, which would not be appropriate unless you're talking about Text or Mtext or Attributes or some such thing. Is a list an Mtext object perhaps with a new line for each "item" in it, and "BK|P" on one of the lines? If it's something like a stack of separate Text objects, from AutoCAD's perspective they are independent, and their constituting a "list" would only be by positional relationship. Are they Tables, perhaps?
Kent Cooper, AIA
@Anonymous wrote:
These are the kind of drawings that I am working with.
And what in that drawing contains or constitutes your 50 or so lists, whatever they are? FIND finds 55 instances of "BK|", but none of "BK|P".
Kent Cooper, AIA
@Anonymous wrote:
That was just an example in the 50 or so list I will be changing the section where BK|J is.
I'm still confused by your use of the word "list," which has a specific meaning in AutoLisp terminology, but nothing in your drawing seems like it could be related to that. All instances the FIND command finds of "BK|J" are in Block Attributes, and there are only four of them. Can you describe in more detail, using AutoCAD's words for things, exactly what you want to change?
Kent Cooper, AIA
