Weird behavior with editor.rereplace function

Eric Chung

I have a text file with the following content:

This is a not selected line !!!
This is line one !!!
Today is a beautiful day !!!
This is line three !!!
This is a not selected line !!!

The text file contains 5 lines of text and I have Python Script installed within Notepad++ and I am executing the commands from the Python Script Console window.

I’ve selected only the middle three lines (lines 2-4) for this test. Below is the output of the commands that I’ve executed.

Python 2.7.6-notepad++ r2 (default, Apr 21 2014, 19:26:54) [MSC v.1600 32 bit (Intel)]
Initialisation took 125ms
Ready.
>>> editor.targetFromSelection()
>>> editor.getTargetStart()
33
>>> editor.getTargetEnd()
107
>>> editor.searchInTarget(r’beautiful’)
66
>>> editor.getTargetStart()
66
>>> editor.getTargetEnd()
75
>>> editor.replaceTargetRE(‘great’)
5
>>> editor.getTargetStart()
0
>>> editor.getTargetEnd()
136

My question is, after the replace command, shouldn’t the target range refer to the replacement text according to the documentation, which should be (start = 66, end = 71), since it replaced with 5 characters. But from the result above, I’ve gotten (start = 0, end = 136), can anyone explain to me what am I doing wrong? Or is this a bug?

Thanks in advance.

dail

It is possible that another plugin is changing the target behind the scene. Or possibly Notepad++ depending on what settings are enabled.

However for me when I try it with the LuaScript plugin, it gives 66/71 as the target after doing the replace.

Eric Chung

I’ve just now realized that in the title I typed editor.rereplace but in the example I actually used editor.replaceTargetRE, but just for people who are wondering, I do get the same weird result no matter which command was used.

Eric Chung

@dail
Thanks for the reply and I’ve also repeated the same commands with LuaScript plugin on my end…unfortunately I am still getting the weird result, see below for my LuaScript console log:

editor:TargetFromSelection()
editor.TargetStart
33
editor.TargetEnd
107
editor:SearchInTarget(‘beautiful’)
66
editor.TargetStart
66
editor.TargetEnd
75
editor:ReplaceTargetRE(‘great’)
5
editor.TargetStart
0
editor.TargetEnd
136

Any other idea that I can try?

dail

Try putting all that in a function and calling the function. That way it will execute all the code at once and not allow another plugin (or Notepad++) to possibly mess with the target.

Eric Chung

@dail
I’ve just tried the same commands on a separate computer which doesn’t have Python Script or LuaScript installed before. So for the test, only LuaScript plugin is installed…but the result came back wrong as well (same weird result).

Eric Chung

@dail
I’ve put all the command inside a function and with that function executed with Python Script plugin, I’ve gotten the same bad result.

Python 2.7.6-notepad++ r2 (default, Apr 21 2014, 19:26:54) [MSC v.1600 32 bit (Intel)]
Initialisation took 140ms
Ready.
getting selection
start = 33
end = 107
look for the word beautiful
start = 66
end = 75
replacing with the word great
start = 0
end = 136

dail

I don’t have PythonScript installed however this is what I did within LuaScript.

Lua 5.3.2  Copyright (C) 1994-2015 Lua.org, PUC-Rio

function f()
	editor.SearchFlags = SCFIND_REGEXP
	editor:TargetFromSelection()
	print(editor.TargetStart)
	print(editor.TargetEnd)
	print("look for the word beautiful")
	editor:SearchInTarget("beautiful")
	print(editor.TargetStart)
	print(editor.TargetEnd)
	print("replacing with the word great")
	editor:ReplaceTargetRE("great")
	print(editor.TargetStart)
	print(editor.TargetEnd)
end

f()
33
107
look for the word beautiful
66
75
replacing with the word great
66
71

What version of Notepad++ are you using?

Eric Chung

I am using Notepad++ v6.9.1.

dail

Same here. I’m honestly not sure what is going on then. As per the Scintilla documentation the target should be the start/end. My only guess is that there is some Notepad++ setting that is messing up the target range.

Eric Chung

@dail
Good news, mystery solved. Now I can re-create this weird behavior of the replace function on your side as well. Simply go to Settings. Preferences, choose MISC., and under Clickable Link Settings, check the box next to Enable option.

Now run your Lua script again and you should get what I am getting. Thanks for all your help :)

dail

I turned on that option and it still gave me the correct results. Tried it on v6.8.3, v6.9, and v6.9.1. But at least it is working correctly for you now.