Multi selection and multi edit

Scott Sumner

This kind of functionality really has nothing to do with Notepad++ itself, but rather is Scintilla-related. Scintilla in Notepad++ is known to be very outdated. Would upgrading Scintilla to the latest version provide such functionality? I don’t know, but since remaining current with Scintilla doesn’t seem to be a priority of Notepad++ developers, it probably isn’t worth much discussion here. :-(

bitagoras

I think with a little bit of programming it could be possible with scintilla but it is not a standard feature that can just be activated.

But you say the Notepad++ developers plan to replace Scintilla? Do you know any details? I haven’t seen any discussion here on this. I wonder, if this wouldn’t be just another new editor but not Notepad++ any more.

Scott Sumner

@bitagoras said:

but it is not a standard feature that can just be activated

Maybe not, I didn’t investigate–but I seem to recall that some of the “fancier” multi-selection stuff is available in newer Scintilla versions…but I don’t know if it takes it to the level of your examples. I really don’t care…until Notepad++ updates to something newer, and THEN I’ll take the time to explore what new features it provides.

you say the Notepad++ developers plan to replace Scintilla?

I most certainly did NOT say that! :-)

guy038

Hello, @bitagoras, @scott-sumner and All,

@bitagoras, why don’t you use the excellent @Dail plugin BetterMultiselection version v1.3 ? See, below :

https://github.com/dail8859/BetterMultiSelection/

https://github.com/dail8859/BetterMultiSelection/releases

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/topic/13653/new-plugin-bettermultiselection

Note that, if you have the last v7.6 version of N++, you’ll have to :

Create the new directory BetterMultiSelection, under your active plugins folder
Place the BetterMultiSelection.dll inside the BetterMultiSelection folder

Now, assuming the test test, below :

abcde fghijk lmno pqr..stuv wxyz 012345789
abcde fghijk lmno pqr..stuv wxyz 012345789
abcde fghijk lmno pqr..stuv wxyz 012345789
abcde fghijk lmno pqr><stuv wxyz 012345789
abcde fghijk lmno pqr><stuv wxyz 012345789
abcde fghijk lmno pqr><stuv wxyz 012345789
abcde fghijk lmno pqr..stuv wxyz 012345789
abcde fghijk lmno pqr..stuv wxyz 012345789
abcde fghijk lmno pqr..stuv wxyz 012345789

Create a column-mode selection, on the 3 middle lines, between the angle brackets ><
And, now have fun, playing around, with any of the following keys or shortcuts, below ;-))
- Home , End , Left , Right , Ctrl + Left , Ctrl + Right
- Shift + Home, Shift + End , Shift + Left, Shift + Right , Ctrl + Shift + Left , Ctrl + Shift + Right
- Backspace , Delete , Ctrl + Backspace , Ctrl + Delete
- Up, Down , Shift + Up, Shift + Down
- Enter , Tab , Shift + Tab

Just a pleasure, isn’t it ? Many thanks, again, @dail, for this very useful plugin, while waiting for this native behavior in N++, after a future update of Scintilla !

Though I suppose,it will not happen soon, as I guess that @don-ho is quite busy with the new plugin’s organization :-)

Best Regards,

P.S. :

You may be interested, too, by this other @dail useful plugin SurroundSelection.dll. See, below :

https://github.com/dail8859/SurroundSelection/

https://github.com/dail8859/SurroundSelection/releases

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/topic/13610/new-plugin-surroundselection

bitagoras

@Scott-Sumner

I most certainly did NOT say that! :-)

Sorry that I misunderstood you sentence. What you say is that it is a priority to upgrade to a new Scintilla version rather than tinker with the current version. I agree.

@guy038,

Yes BetterMultiSelection works very well. But the mulit clipboard and the Ctrl+D would make it perfekt.

Here the example again. I just figured out how to embedd the GIF.

Scott Sumner

@bitagoras said:

What you say is that it is a priority to upgrade to a new Scintilla version rather than tinker with the current version

I didn’t say THAT either (I don’t know WHAT if any Scintilla-based decisions are being made, or how they are made), but I agree as well. :-)

I just figured out how to embedd the GIF.

I don’t see the embedded GIF. But it is OK since it is available via the earlier link you posted.

bitagoras

@Scott-Sumner

ok but I think I got your point ;-)

Probably this GIF is only visible from my IP.

PeterJones

I can see the animated gif. It may be that Scott’s connection is being filtered from seeing s2.gifyu.com – I know that my employer blocks many file-sharing sites; fortunately, imgur is not one of them (amazingly enough), so I can upload to and see embedded images from imgur, which is quite helpful here.

guy038

Hi, @bitagoras, and All,

I found out a work-around to simulate the behavior of your animated gif picture !

I suppose 3 hypotheses :

The Multi-Editing feature is enabled ( Settings > Preferences… > Editing > Multi-Editing settings )
The BetterMultiSelection plugin is installed and enabled
The Ctrl+ D shortcut is assigned to the Scintilla function SCI_SELECTION DUPLICATE ( and not to SCI_LINEDUPLICATE ! )

So, assuming this sample test, below , in a new tab :

var1, var2, object1, object2, object3, flag2, flag3

Place the cursor right before the string var1 ( without the Ctrl key pressed )
Holding down a Ctrl key, left click, right in front of all the other strings, in order to get a total of 7 cursors !

Now :

Backspace * 2
Enter

You should get a 7- lines selection, below :

var1
var2
object1
object2
object3
flag2
flag3

Note that the SP notation, below, represents a hit on the Space bar

Type obj.
Shift + End
Ctrl + D
Right
Type SP=SParg["
Shift + End
Ctrl + D
Right
Type "]SP#SPDefinitionSPofSP
Esc

You obtain the following text :

obj.var1 = arg["var1"] # Definition of var1
obj.var2 = arg["var2"] # Definition of var2
obj.object1 = arg["object1"] # Definition of object1
obj.object2 = arg["object2"] # Definition of object2
obj.object3 = arg["object3"] # Definition of object3
obj.flag2 = arg["flag2"] # Definition of flag2
obj.flag3 = arg["flag3"] # Definition of flag3

Now, regarding the second block, we start, again, with the following text :

var1, var2, object1, object2, object3, flag2, flag3

Place the cursor right before the string var1 ( without the Ctrl key pressed )
Holding down a Ctrl key, left click, right in front of all the other strings, in order to get a total of 7 cursors

Then :

Backspace * 2
Enter

Again , you’ll obtain the 7- lines selection, below :

var1
var2
object1
object2
object3
flag2
flag3

Now :

Tab
Type "
Shift + End
Ctrl + D
Right
Type ":SPobj.
End
Type ,
Esc

And… you get the expected text, with a leading tabulation :

	"var1": obj.var1,
	"var2": obj.var2,
	"object1": obj.object1,
	"object2": obj.object2,
	"object3": obj.object3,
	"flag2": obj.flag2,
	"flag3": obj.flag3,

Cheers,

guy038

cipher-1024

I don’t know HOW I missed @dali 's plugin for this long! I have to admit whenever I saw someone doing multiline work I was extremely jealous and tempted to try the VS Code waters. @guy038, what is your CTRL-D mapped to? CTRL-D is mapped to “Duplicate Current Line” for me. When I follow your instructions, I just get duplicate lines. If I try to copy and paste, the paste is just all of the selections globbed together. I can’t seem to duplicate just the selection (like it does in the gif on github). This is what I get when I follow your instructions:

	"var1": obj.,
	"var1
	"var2": obj.,
	"var2
	"object1": obj.,
	"object1
	"object2": obj.,
	"object2
	"object3": obj.,
	"object3
	"flag2": obj.,
	"flag2
	"flag3": obj.,
	"flag3

cipher-1024

Ohh you rascals! I went into the shortcut mapper and under the Scintilla commands tab there was an unassigned “SCI_SELECTIONDUPLICATE”. I assigned that to Ctrl + D et voila! (as Guy would say)!

Christmas came early this year! Now I’m not the only kid on the block that can’t mulitedit! Thank you @dail and @guy038 for bringing this plugin to my attention!

guy038

Hello, @cipher-1024, and All,

Yes, as you found it out yourself, my Ctrl+D shortcut is assigned to the Scintilla function SCI_SELECTIONDUPLICATE ( and not to SCI_LINEDUPLICATE ! )

So, I updated my previous post to add this statement to the hypotheses block !

Cheers,

guy038

cipher-1024

Thanks Guy. I must have changed the default ages ago because I don’t remember doing it. Also a big thank you again to @dail. Now I don’t have to be all like this.

bitagoras

For your information: The newest version of the plugin “BetterMultiSelection” is now capable to do copy and paste on multiple cursors (as I used it in the VSCode animation above).

There is now only the one missing important feature to make multi editing as fast as in VSCode: the ctrl+D select function. Scintilla seems to support this feature as well, but it’s not available in Notepad++ for keyboard shortcut:

SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDNEXT (in VSCode bound to ctrl-d)
SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDEACH (in VSCode bound to shift-ctrl-l)

What ctrl-d does:
It selects the next occurence of the current selection as added multiselection. You can use it to very quickly rename variables. In Notepad++ you have to use the mouse, which is much slower, or the replace function. In VSCode there is also a “skip next occurence” (ctrl-k) and “undo last selection” (ctrl-u) which makes it very versatile.

Ekopalypse

@bitagoras said in Multi selection and multi edit:

SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDNEXT

Added this feature request.

dinkumoil

@bitagoras

About to one year ago we had a conversation about this topic here in the forum, have a look at this thread.

The essentials of the discussion:

You can already use these features using a scripting plugin.

In the following I provide the code for the NppExec plugin.

Command SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDNEXT (with the help of @Ekopalypse):

sci_sendmsg SCI_SETSEARCHFLAGS SCFIND_WHOLEWORD
sci_sendmsg 2690  // SCI_TARGETWHOLEDOCUMENT
sci_sendmsg 2688  // SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDNEXT

Command SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDEACH (generously provided by @Ekopalypse):

sci_sendmsg SCI_SETSEARCHFLAGS SCFIND_WHOLEWORD
sci_sendmsg 2690  // SCI_TARGETWHOLEDOCUMENT

sci_sendmsg SCI_GETSELECTIONEMPTY

if $(MSG_RESULT) == 1 then
  sci_sendmsg 2688  // SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDNEXT
 
sci_sendmsg 2689  // SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDEACH

As these commands are not supported in Notepad++ versions older than v7.7, it is possible to emulate them using a scripting plugin. In the following I provide the Lua code (can be used in conjunction with the LuaScript plugin) to do this:

Command SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDNEXT (provided by @dail):

-- =============================================================================
-- Add menu entry to select next occurence of word under or next to cursor or
-- already selected word
-- =============================================================================

npp.AddShortcut("Selection Add Next", "", function()
  -- From SciTEBase.cxx
  local flags = SCFIND_WHOLEWORD -- can use 0

  editor:SetTargetRange(0, editor.TextLength)
  editor.SearchFlags = flags

  -- From Editor.cxx
  if editor.SelectionEmpty or not editor.MultipleSelection then
    local startWord = editor:WordStartPosition(editor.CurrentPos, true)
    local endWord   = editor:WordEndPosition(startWord, true)

    editor:SetSelection(startWord, endWord)
  else
    local i = editor.MainSelection
    local s = editor:textrange(editor.SelectionNStart[i], editor.SelectionNEnd[i])
    local searchRanges = {{editor.SelectionNEnd[i], editor.TargetEnd}, {editor.TargetStart, editor.SelectionNStart[i]}}

    for _, range in pairs(searchRanges) do
      editor:SetTargetRange(range[1], range[2])

      if editor:SearchInTarget(s) ~= -1 then
        editor:AddSelection(editor.TargetStart, editor.TargetEnd)

        -- To scroll main selection in sight
        editor:ScrollRange(editor.TargetStart, editor.TargetEnd)

        break
      end
    end
  end

  -- To turn on Notepad++ multi select markers
  editor:LineScroll(0, 1)
  editor:LineScroll(0, -1)
end)

Command SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDEACH (devolped by myself by extending above script):

-- =============================================================================
-- Add menu entry to select all occurences of word under or next to cursor or
-- already selected word
-- =============================================================================

npp.AddShortcut("Selection Add All", "", function()
  local flags     = SCFIND_WHOLEWORD -- can use 0
  local startWord = -1
  local endWord   = -1
  local s         = ""

  editor.SearchFlags = flags

  if editor.SelectionEmpty or not editor.MultipleSelection then
    startWord = editor:WordStartPosition(editor.CurrentPos, true)
    endWord   = editor:WordEndPosition(startWord, true)

    editor:SetSelection(startWord, endWord)
  else
    local i   = editor.MainSelection

    startWord = editor.SelectionNStart[i]
    endWord   = editor.SelectionNEnd[i]
  end

  s = editor:textrange(startWord, endWord)

  while true do
    editor:SetTargetRange(0, editor.TextLength)

    local i            = editor.MainSelection
    local searchRanges = {{editor.SelectionNEnd[i], editor.TargetEnd}, {editor.TargetStart, editor.SelectionNStart[i]}}
    local itemFound    = false

    for _, range in pairs(searchRanges) do
      editor:SetTargetRange(range[1], range[2])

      if editor:SearchInTarget(s) ~= -1 then
        editor:AddSelection(editor.TargetStart, editor.TargetEnd)
        itemFound = true
        break
      end
    end

    if editor.TargetStart == startWord and
       editor.TargetEnd   == endWord   or
       not itemFound                   then
      break
    end
  end

  -- To turn on Notepad++ multi select markers
  editor:LineScroll(0, 1)
  editor:LineScroll(0, -1)
end)

bitagoras

@dinkumoil : Ok thank you, I was not aware. But I still would appreaciate if the two functions would be added to list of scintilla comands at the keyboard shortcuts. Should not be to difficult.

Ekopalypse

@bitagoras
I just have updated the FR with my test.
A simple keyboard binding does not work but the solution is
similar easy.

bitagoras

Here is my entire solution (copy from this Github Issue) with NppExec which gives Notepad++ all the multi editing functionality from VSCode. The only difference is that there are two different shortcuts each for addNext and for skip.

addNext (Ctrl-D):

NPP_CONSOLE 0
sci_sendmsg 2690  // SCI_TARGETWHOLEDOCUMENT
sci_sendmsg SCI_SETSEARCHFLAGS 0
sci_sendmsg 2688  // SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDNEXT

multiSelect_D

addNextWholeWord (Shift-Ctrl-D):

NPP_CONSOLE 0
sci_sendmsg 2690  // SCI_TARGETWHOLEDOCUMENT
sci_sendmsg SCI_SETSEARCHFLAGS SCFIND_WHOLEWORD
sci_sendmsg 2688  // SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDNEXT

multiSelect_DW

addEach (Shift-Ctrl-L):

NPP_CONSOLE 0
sci_sendmsg 2690  // SCI_TARGETWHOLEDOCUMENT
sci_sendmsg SCI_GETSELECTIONEMPTY
if $(MSG_RESULT) == 1 then
  sci_sendmsg SCI_SETSEARCHFLAGS SCFIND_WHOLEWORD
else
  sci_sendmsg SCI_SETSEARCHFLAGS 0
endif
sci_sendmsg 2689  // SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDEACH
sci_sendmsg 2689  // SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDEACH

multiSelect_EACH

undoAddNext (Ctrl-U):

NPP_CONSOLE 0
sci_sendmsg SCI_GETSELECTIONS
set n ~ $(MSG_RESULT) - 1
sci_sendmsg SCI_DROPSELECTIONN $(n)

multiSelect_DU

skip (Alt-Ctrl-D):

NPP_CONSOLE 0
sci_sendmsg SCI_SETSEARCHFLAGS SCFIND_NONE
sci_sendmsg 2688  // SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDNEXT
sci_sendmsg SCI_GETSELECTIONS
set n ~ $(MSG_RESULT) - 2
sci_sendmsg SCI_DROPSELECTIONN $(n)

multiSelect_DS

skipWholeWord (Alt-Shift-Ctrl-D):

NPP_CONSOLE 0
sci_sendmsg SCI_SETSEARCHFLAGS SCFIND_NONE
sci_sendmsg 2688  // SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDNEXT
sci_sendmsg SCI_GETSELECTIONS
set n ~ $(MSG_RESULT) - 2
sci_sendmsg SCI_DROPSELECTIONN $(n)

michaelfernandez98

Hello
I’m new to this but I’m interested in having the functionality to select similar strings in a document and be able to do multiple editing
how can i add this functionality to notepad ++?