Multi-file search: Show entire matched string, not just first matched line

Eiren Smith

When searching in multiple files, is it possible to display the entire matched string for each match in the list, not just the first matched line from each file?

I need this so I can ensure my search criteria is perfect prior to doing a multi-file string replacement.

Jim Dailey

Not sure what you are seeing, but if I do a find in files (or find in all open documents) I see all of the lines that match in all of the files.

Eiren Smith

You’re right for some searches. However, my search matches text on multiple lines with one regex.

For example, a few files contain:

First line
Second line
Third line

My regex is:

First.*line

That (being a greedy-mode regex) matches everything from"First" to the last instance of “line” – three lines of text matched.

When I do that, I get what I reported – just the first line of the match (“First line”) showing in my “Find result” list. Not what I want.

If I do a regex that has multiple single-line matches, those all display.

I’d show a picture, but I don’t know where to host the pic. I don’t see an upload feature here.

Any ideas, folks?

Thanks.

Jim Dailey

Oh, I see. I hadn’t tried a regex whose match spanned multiple lines. I’m guessing whomever wrote the code to display the find results didn’t consider such a case either.

I don’t imagine there is any way (short of modifying the N++ code) to do what you want.

Eiren Smith

Thanks. Sorry to hear it. I guess I’ll test the regexes with grep instead, then later run them with Notepad++.

Scott Sumner

@Eiren-Smith

I wouldn’t do that…grep and Notepad++ use different flavors of regex engine. No guarantee that the results are going to be the same.

Eiren Smith

Thanks, Scott. I later noticed that. Oh, well.