I accidentally pressed some combination of buttons and messed up my search function

[Tristan Hilaman]

As the title says, I was trying to type in a search, but my finger hit the wrong key (possibly Leftside-Ctrl, Windows Key, or Leftside-Alt), and now when I try to search something,

for example:
(“Redfort_26”) it can’t find anything, and says (“Find: Can’t find the text “Redfort26” in entire file”)

to test further, I did the same search using the button “Find All in Current Document”, and this popped up: Search “RedfortUS_26” (0 hits in 0 files of 1 searched) [Normal][link text]

How do I fix this?

[PeterJones]

@Tristan-Hilaman ,

How do I fix this?

Edit the search query. Put you cursor before the t, then right arrow one, then hit DEL – if you did that right, the t and _ will still be there, but it will remove the US character from your FIND WHAT field. Then the search should look for the text you actually want.

The US character is ASCII control code 31, which is the Unit Separator, and can be typed as Ctrl+_ (which on US keyboard is Ctrl+Shift+-/_)

To prevent it: the Notepad++ option Settings > Preferences > Editing 2 > Prevent control character (C0 code) typing into document will prevent accidentally typing it in the actual document. Unfortunately, that setting doesn’t affect the FIND dialog, so you can still accidentally type C0 control codes in those fields without being able to see them. You could start by typing your query into a Notepad++ editor tab, then copy that search string and paste it in the FIND dialog, which would protect you from the accidental hidden characters when typing, but it’s an annoying extra step.

[Tristan Hilaman]

@PeterJones Thank you!