* Help with Lua Pattern for search and replace plugin

[johnmorrisoniom]

I am going through my media and source name to rationalise them.
I have a several hundred of each in the format:

Census England Berwick On Tweed 1851 - HO107 piece 2421 folio 502 page 14

and I wish it to become

Census 1851 England Berwick On Tweed - HO107 piece 2421 folio 502 page 14

i.e. just move the year.

What should the pattern be please? I just can't get my head around these yet.
TIA
John

[tatewise]

Search: ^Census (.- )(%d%d%d%d )(%- .+)$

Replace: Census %2%1%3

That search should do it where :-
^Census is start of text anchor and match for Census
(.- ) captures the shortest text after Census up to a space and 4 digits
(%d%d%d%d ) captures 4 digits and a space
(%- .+) captures a non-magic hyphen, a space, and the remaining text
$ is end of text anchor
To get it to work reliably notice how each component except the last ends with a space character.

The replace is :-
Census followed by the 2nd, 1st, and 3rd captures.

[johnmorrisoniom]

Brilliant Mike, Thanks very much.
Over 2000 replacements done in about 2 minutes.
I'll get the hang of lua patterns one day.
John