Replace multiple occurences of a character with a single character in LibreOffice Calc

Question

In LiberOffice Calc, I would like to replace multiple occurences of a character with a single occurence. For example, abcd::::xyz should be replaced with abcd:xyz. How to do that? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Go to Edit > Find and Replace. Make sure Regular Expressions is checked.

• Find (.)\1+
• Replace $1

Explanation: (.) finds any character and remembers what it is. \1 refers to whatever character was found originally, and + requires 1 or more of them. $1 also refers to that same character.

Example: apple bannanna becomes aple banana

To change only semicolons, do this instead:

• Find (:){2,}
• Replace $1

Documentation: https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/shared/01/02100001.html

Answer 2

On your top menu, click on EDIT.

Then, select Find & Replace.

In the Find field, enter ::::

In the Replace field, enter :

Then, click Replace All.

Finally, click Done and then click Close