List Operations

Please read the Material Usage Rules on this site.

🔗 Original page — Source of this material

---

Description

❗→ Lists are mainly used for getting lines of data from a text document or file data entries. For example, you have a file with a list of URLs and you need to visit them one by one, or you're parsing some values from a site and need to sort, remove duplicates, and save them to a file (like parsed email addresses).

How do you add a list to a project?

Note

You need to create a List before getting started

How do you add an action to a project?

Right-click and choose Add Action → Lists → List Operations

Or use ❗→ Smart Search.

What is this used for?

• Adding and retrieving list items
• Removing lines and duplicates
• Linking to a file
• Getting the number of lines
• Shuffling
• Sorting values

How do you work with the action?

Select a sublist

Selects a specific part of the list.

1. Select the list you want to work with.
2. Choose the function.
3. Specify where the result will be saved.
4. Sublist filter method a) ❗→ Range - set the range of lines to extract. b) Items not containing text - selects all lines not containing the given text; you can use variables. c) Items not matching ❗→ regex - search criteria using ❗→ regex. d) Items containing text - selects values containing the needed text; you can use variables. e) Items matching ❗→ regex - search criteria using ❗→ regex.
5. Enter the value for step 4 here.
6. Lines that match the criteria will be removed.
7. If the ❗→ list is empty, Zennoposter will go down the red branch.

Example

Let's take the first five lines (numbering starts from zero!) from ❗→ list 1 and save them to ❗→ list 2

❗→ List 1

Before

After

❗→ List 2

Add data from list

Add data from one list to another.

1. Select the list you'll work with
2. Choose the function.
3. Specify where to take the lines from.
4. Where to place the result - *at the end, *at the beginning, *at a position.
5. If *at a position is chosen, enter the line number or a variable.

Note

Lines are copied, not removed from the original list.

Example

Add lines from ❗→ list 2 to the end of ❗→ list 1

❗→ List 2

❗→ List 1

Before

After

Items from list 2 remain in place

Add a line

Add a line to a list.

1. Select the list you'll work with
2. Choose the function.
3. Enter the value or variable.
4. Where to place the result - *at the end, *at the beginning, *at a position.
5. If you chose *at a position, enter the row number or variable.

Example

Add a value to the end of ❗→ list 1

❗→ List 1

Before

After

Add text

Add text to a list.

1. Select the list you'll work with
2. Choose the function.
3. Text or character set to add to the list; you can use a variable.
4. Where to place the result - *at the end, *at the beginning, *at a position.
5. Add empty lines if the text is missing.

Example

Add text to ❗→ list 1

❗→ List 1

Before

After

The text had a newline separator, so it was added to the list line by line

Join list items

Join list items with a separator and optionally save to a variable.

1. Select the list you'll work with
2. Choose the function.
3. Line separator a) *New line - every item will be on a new line. b) *Custom - enter your own text or characters to insert between the list items. c) *From the list settings - uses the separator from ❗→ list settings.
4. Variable to save the processed data.

Example

Join items from ❗→ list 1, using the custom separator “-;“

Contents of ❗→ list 1

The result will be saved to variable *stroka

Shuffle list items

Randomly reorder the items in a list.

1. Select the list you'll work with
2. Choose the function.

Note

Changing the order will not lose any values.

Example

Shuffle the items in ❗→ list 1

❗→ List 1

Before

After

Get number of lines

Get the count of lines in a list.

1. Select the list you'll work with
2. Choose the function.
3. Search criteria (can use a variable): a) All b) Do not contain text c) Do not match ❗→ regex d) With value e) Contain text f) Match ❗→ regex
4. Variable to save result.

Note

The variable will always only contain a number.

Example

Count the number of lines in ❗→ list 1 and save it to a variable

Contents of ❗→ list 1

The number will be saved to variable kolichestvo_strok

Get a line

Retrieve a line, with an option to remove it from the list and save to a variable.

1. Select the list you'll work with
2. Choose the function.
3. Line criteria (can use a variable): a) Does not contain text b) Does not match ❗→ regex c) First line d) By number e) Random f) Matches ❗→ regex
4. Remove line after extracting
5. Variable for saving the value.

Example

Get a random line from ❗→ list 1 into a variable

Contents of ❗→ list 1

The result will be saved to variable stroka

Link to a file

Link a list to a file during project execution.

1. Select the list you'll work with
2. Choose the function.
3. Choose a file or specify a variable containing the file path.
4. If a file does not exist at the path, ZennoPoster will create it automatically.

Example

Link a file to ❗→ list 1

❗→ List 1 will be connected to the selected file

Sort

Sort list items in ascending or descending order.

1. Select the list you'll work with
2. Choose the function.
3. Use numeric principle.
4. Choose the sort type: *descending or *ascending.

Info

Not all letter or symbol lines can be sorted

Example

Sort values in ❗→ list 1 in descending order

❗→ List 1

Before

After

Save to file

1. Select the list you'll work with
2. Choose the function.
3. Choose the separator (you can use variables): a) *New line b) *Custom c) *From the list
4. Choose the file or specify a variable containing the file path.
5. The checkbox lets you either append to the file or overwrite it completely.

Example

Save values of ❗→ list 1 to a file

Contents of ❗→ list 1

After running, all values will be written to the file

Remove duplicates

Remove duplicate lines from a list.

1. Select the list you'll work with
2. Choose the function.

Note

Processing a file with a large number of lines may take some time.

Example

Remove all duplicates in ❗→ list 1

❗→ List 1

Before

After

Remove lines

Remove lines from a list based on specific criteria.

1. Select the list you'll work with
2. Choose the function.
3. Remove lines by criteria (can use variables): a) All b) Not containing text c) Not matching ❗→ regex d) First line e) By numbers (can use ❗→ ranges) f) With value g) Containing text h) Containing only whitespace i) Matching ❗→ regex

Example

Remove lines containing character @ from ❗→ list 1

❗→ List 1

Before

After

Example usage

Suppose you need to go to all pages from a list, collect their titles, and put them in another list.

1. Create ❗→ List_1 with the pages and link it to a file ahead of time.
2. Remove duplicates to avoid visiting the same page twice.
3. Create and link ❗→ List_2 to a file.
4. Parse the required info from the pages into ❗→ List_2.
5. Remove duplicates.

This way, you can create lists of any information you need for further processing or use.

Useful links

1. ❗→ Variables window
2. ❗→ Regex tester
3. ❗→ List