How Do I Delete Search Entries?

Alan Kilborn

It is confusing when you say “saw links to the post I made…” and then don’t tell us what link you are talking about. How are we supposed to know?

But I went “above and beyond” and I think I found what you are talking about, am I right?:

https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues/2944

Alan Kilborn

@Troglo37

You asked for 100 (or more) entries in the find history.

The developers, prior to your request, had implemented a way to get 30, which is a 3x “improvement” over the standard 10.
Now, while the method for obtaining 30 is a bit strange (editing config.xml with Notepad++ not running), I tested it in the 8.0RC version and it does work to retain 30.

Probably the developers think 30 is enough?
I agree that is enough.
Any more than that, you’d spend more time trying to look through all of the entries in order to find what you want, rather than just entering it fresh.

I have no insight as to why the devs left your issue open if they think 30 is a good limit. But, it joins many other issues that are left open as well!

Ekopalypse

@Alan-Kilborn said in How Do I Delete Search Entries?:

I have no insight as to why the devs left your issue open

:-D so that they continue to have something to do? :-D

Troglo37

@Alan-Kilborn said in How Do I Delete Search Entries?:

@Troglo37

You asked for 100 (or more) entries in the find history.

The developers, prior to your request, had implemented a way to get 30, which is a 3x “improvement” over the standard 10.
Now, while the method for obtaining 30 is a bit strange (editing config.xml with Notepad++ not running), I tested it in the 8.0RC version and it does work to retain 30.

Probably the developers think 30 is enough?
I agree that is enough.
Any more than that, you’d spend more time trying to look through all of the entries in order to find what you want, rather than just entering it fresh.

I have no insight as to why the devs left your issue open if they think 30 is a good limit. But, it joins many other issues that are left open as well!

Are you saying that now 30 entries can be saved? If so, how do I enable that?

PeterJones

@Troglo37 ,

This was described for you in your issue#2944 (admittedly almost a year later, so you might not have noticed, though GitHub should have notified you of the reply).

You have to edit config.xml and change nbMaxFindHistoryFind="10" to nbMaxFindHistoryFind="30". (You cannot go higher than 30.) Note: when manually editing config files, you have to follow the “Editing Configuration Files” description in the npp-user-manual.org/docs/config-files/ – if you don’t follow that procedure, Notepad++ might overwrite your changes to config.xml when it closes.

Note that the nbMaxFindHistoryFind setting has existed since 2009 – so it definitely was available when you asked your question in 2017. Though they did fix a bug in v7.8.7 (Apr 2020) where before, if you set nbMaxFindHistoryFind > 30, it would erase your whole history; now it just leaves the history limit to 30 even if you try to set it higher.

That setting needs to be described in the “Preferences for Advanced Users” section. I created usermanual issue#241.

PeterJones

@Troglo37 ,

Correction to what I said earlier: The config.xml file can be overwritten by Notepad++ on exit, even if you follow the procedure I linked, so that sequence won’t reliably work for config.xml. To edit config.xml, close all instances of Notepad++; edit config.xml in some other editor (like Windows’ builtin notepad.exe) and save; reload Notepad++ and the changes should take effect.

Troglo37

@PeterJones I have to leave now. I’ll be gone most of the day. When I get back, I’ll follow your instructions and let you know if I was successful with it or not.

Troglo37

@PeterJones said in How Do I Delete Search Entries?:

nbMaxFindHistoryFind=“10”

Should I change nbMaxFindHistoryPath=“10”, nbMaxFindHistoryFilter=“10” and nbMaxFindHistoryReplace=“10” all to 30 too?

It seems as though they should be changed too, but I dare not do so unless you tell me to do so.

PeterJones

@Troglo37 said in How Do I Delete Search Entries?:

It seems as though they should be changed too

Those are editable as well. (You could have found that out by looking at my issue#241 linked above, which has the description that will hopefully be in the next version of the online usermanual.)

Whether or not you should depends on whether you desire the “replace” , “filters”, and “directory” boxes to have a longer history as well. All have the same restriction of a value up to 30.

but I dare not do so unless you tell me to do so.

I cannot tell whether that was serious – in which case, wow, calm down, the only thing that could go wrong is you’d lose some regex history – or sarcasm – in which case, wow, calm down, I’ve never claimed to be the arbiter of what you should or should not do with Notepad++. I’m just trying to be helpful.

Alan Kilborn

@PeterJones said in How Do I Delete Search Entries?:

the only thing that could go wrong is you’d lose some regex history

Is that even true?
I know there was an old bug with that, but I thought it got fixed.

Should I change nbMaxFindHistoryPath=“10”, nbMaxFindHistoryFilter=“10” and nbMaxFindHistoryReplace=“10” all to 30 too?

I think even if you set them all to 99, each one individually should get set to its maximum when you next exit Notepad++ (and config.xml gets rewritten).

(I really really think too much time and effort has gone into discussing this. I hope it is over. Whew!)

Troglo37

@PeterJones I wasn’t being sarcastic and it wasn’t meant as a slight toward you. I meant it as I wouldn’t take the chance of changing something that you didn’t say to change for fear it might have unintended consequences.

It’s already evident I’m not well-versed in N++ and defer to someone with much greater knowledge than I.

@Alan-Kilborn I’m aware that the max is 30. The issue was whether or not to change the other 3 entries I asked about to 30.

PeterJones

@Alan-Kilborn said in How Do I Delete Search Entries?:

@PeterJones said in How Do I Delete Search Entries?:

the only thing that could go wrong is you’d lose some regex history
Is that even true?
I know there was an old bug with that, but I thought it got fixed.

It could be set to 0, which still clears the history (understandably, since you told it you want a 0-length history).
(yes,

I hope it is over.

Sorry, you asked, I had to answer. ;-)

Troglo37

I went ahead and enabled all of the entries to 30. I added 30 entries, closed and reopened N++ and so far all seems to be working properly.

P.S. I have no idea what the 3 entries (nbMaxFindHistoryPath=“10”, nbMaxFindHistoryFilter=“10” and nbMaxFindHistoryReplace=“10” NOW “30”) do. I just assume by looking at what’s written in the code that they’re related and possibly should match nbMaxFindHistoryFind=“30”.

guy038

Hello, @troglo37, @peterjones, @alan-kilborn, @ekopalypse and All,

@troglo37 :

Well, you could have guessed, with a bit of deduction, even if not aware about technical matters !!

Firstly, look at the four main fields of the Find in Files dialog ( Ctrl + Shift + F ):
- Find what:
- Replace with:
- Filters:
- Directory:
Secondly, look at the first 4 attributes of the <FindHistory •••••••••••••••> tag :
- nbMaxFindHistoryPath
- nbMaxFindHistoryFilter
- nbMaxFindHistoryFind
- nbMaxFindHistoryReplace

Isn’t it obvious ?

Still confused ?

Then, let’s re-organize these four attributes, like below :
- nbMaxFindHistoryFind
- nbMaxFindHistoryReplace
- nbMaxFindHistoryFilter
- nbMaxFindHistoryPath

I hope you get it :-))

Best Regards,

guy038

Alan Kilborn

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