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    Multi selection and multi edit

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    • cipher-1024C
      cipher-1024
      last edited by

      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
      
      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
      • cipher-1024C
        cipher-1024
        last edited by 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!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
        • guy038G
          guy038
          last edited by 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

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
          • cipher-1024C
            cipher-1024
            last edited by

            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.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • bitagorasB
              bitagoras
              last edited by

              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.

              EkopalypseE dinkumoilD 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 3
              • EkopalypseE
                Ekopalypse @bitagoras
                last edited by Ekopalypse

                @bitagoras said in Multi selection and multi edit:

                SCI_MULTIPLESELECTADDNEXT

                Added this feature request.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                • dinkumoilD
                  dinkumoil @bitagoras
                  last edited by 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:

                  1. 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
                  
                  1. 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)
                  
                  bitagorasB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
                  • bitagorasB
                    bitagoras @dinkumoil
                    last edited by

                    @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.

                    EkopalypseE 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • EkopalypseE
                      Ekopalypse @bitagoras
                      last edited by

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

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • bitagorasB
                        bitagoras
                        last edited by

                        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)
                        
                        Don BhaiD bitagorasB 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 6
                        • michaelfernandez98M
                          michaelfernandez98
                          last edited by

                          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 ++?

                          Alan KilbornA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Alan KilbornA
                            Alan Kilborn @michaelfernandez98
                            last edited by

                            @michaelfernandez98

                            Perhaps the simplest way would be to add the NppExec plugin to your Notepad++ and used the scripts by @bitagoras directly above?

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                            • michaelfernandez98M
                              michaelfernandez98
                              last edited by

                              yes i was watching
                              I already installed the NppExec script to the notepad++
                              but now the problem is how do I add the scripts by @bitagoras to the notepad ++?

                              Alan KilbornA PeterJonesP 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • Alan KilbornA
                                Alan Kilborn @michaelfernandez98
                                last edited by

                                @michaelfernandez98

                                It feels a bit like spoon-feeding, but…

                                • Select Plugins from the N++ menus
                                • Select NppExec
                                • Select Execute (default key assignment is F6)
                                • Paste in ONE of the short “scripts” above in the Execute… box that appears
                                • Optionally (but recommended) test run it by pressing the OK button
                                • Press F6 again; “script” from before was retained and shows in the box
                                • Press Save… , give it a name (suggested above the “scripts” above), press OK
                                • Assign a keycombo (again; suggested ones are above the “scripts” above)
                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                • PeterJonesP
                                  PeterJones @michaelfernandez98
                                  last edited by PeterJones

                                  @michaelfernandez98 said:

                                  but now the problem is how do I add the scripts by @bitagoras to the notepad ++?

                                  @Alan-Kilborn replied:

                                  …
                                  Assign a keycombo (again; suggested ones are above the “scripts” above)

                                  If saving and naming a script wasn’t obvious, then assigning a keycombo is going to be less intuitive. Just saying. ;-)

                                  @michaelfernandez98,
                                  Once you have one or more scripts named and saved as Alan described, then go to Plugins > NppExec > Advanced Options. In the lower left, use the Associated Script pulldown to select the script; click Add/Modify button to add it to the list of Menu Items in the upper left; note whether or not ☑ Place in the Macros Submenu is enabled (you will need this later). Repeat as necessary for all of the above scripts. When you hit OK to apply those changes, a popup will tell you that you should restart Notepad++: save any open files, then restart Notepad++.

                                  After the restart, then either the Macros menu (if the checkbox was enabled) or the Plugins > NppExec submenu (if the checkbox was disabled) will list your new NppExec scripts.

                                  To assign a keycombo to each, go to Macros > Modify Shortcut/Delete Macro (or, equivalently, Settings > Shortcut Mapper), and go to the Plugin Commands tab. Filter by NppExec and scroll down until you see the new script names. Click on the script you want a keycombo for, hit Modify, and pick the appropriate combination of Ctrl, Alt, Shift, and the selected key. Repeat the Modify procedure for all the scripts that you want a keycombo for.

                                  Alan KilbornA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                                  • Alan KilbornA
                                    Alan Kilborn @PeterJones
                                    last edited by

                                    @PeterJones

                                    Thanks for filling in those details Peter!
                                    As I was walking thru the steps on my setup, I didn’t do that part, so I’d forgotten that it was maybe not the most obvious thing.

                                    Is there a way to delete scripts that just isn’t obvious to me at the moment?
                                    For example, during my experimentation I named my script “junk”.
                                    Now I want to get rid of it, but don’t see a way to in the NppExec UI.
                                    Or do I have to resort to hand-editing the config file for the plugin?

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                    • PeterJonesP
                                      PeterJones
                                      last edited by

                                      @Alan-Kilborn said in Multi selection and multi edit:

                                      Now I want to get rid of it, but don’t see a way to in the NppExec UI.

                                      No obvious way, that’s for sure.

                                      The … > Advanced Options > Delete button removes it from the menu, but not from the saved scripts.

                                      Oh, right, there it is. F6, select junk, counter-intuitively hit Save…, then click the Delete button.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                                      • michaelfernandez98M
                                        michaelfernandez98
                                        last edited by

                                        I could already install the plugin and assign the keycombo to it
                                        thanks @PeterJones @Alan-Kilborn
                                        They were very helpful

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                                        • michaelfernandez98M
                                          michaelfernandez98
                                          last edited by

                                          sorry if my english is bad
                                          I speak Spanish

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                          • Don BhaiD
                                            Don Bhai @bitagoras
                                            last edited by

                                            @bitagoras
                                            @Claudia-Frank
                                            @dinkumoil
                                            i got the plugin and could multi select finally, thanks
                                            but i tried to replace 6 words by another corresponding 6 words
                                            it worked in vscode that the first selected word replaced by the first word in clipboard and the second word replaced by second word and so on
                                            but her in notepad++ every word replaced by the 6 words that in clipboard that makes me crazy
                                            please, any one can help? any idea ?any script ?

                                            Alan KilbornA astrosofistaA 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
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