Move a block to the right or left

Ramin Parsa

Hi

Are there shortcuts to Move a block to the right or left completely like microsoft word (ctrl+R and ctrl+L)

ctrl+alt+R and ctrl+alt+L doesn’t work ( the following image)

http://8pic.ir/images/0nu0oph3hj31aer7uidb.jpg

I want to move all lines together on the left or right with a shortcut like microsoft word (like the following image)

http://8pic.ir/images/dvprcoax4z2lrrkk98wl.jpg

guy038

Hello, Ramin Parsa,

It look easy and difficult, at the same time !!

A) How to move a block of lines to the leftmost position ( so, at column 1 )? Quite easy, indeed !

Firstly, select your block of lines
Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )
SEARCH ^\h+
REPLACE EMPTY
Select the Regular expression search mode
Check the In selection option
Click on the Replace All button

Et voilà !

For instance, from the original text, below :

                         This is
                 a
    short and simple test
                      and I
                                   strongly hope that
              everything will turn right, in the
        end !

We’ll get the text below :

This is
a
short and simple test
and I
strongly hope that
everything will turn right, in the
end !

This S/R should be easily written, as a macro !

B) How to move a block of lines to the rightmost position ? This task is more difficult and SHOULD, normally, be done by a script language, as the Python or Lua plugin

Indeed, if we’re going to use regexes, we have to find out, first, the number M of characters of the longest line of your block, as I suppose that the rightmost location is located just after the last character of the longest line !

In our example above, the longest line contains 53 characters => M = 53

Remarks :

I suppose that your text does NOT contain any tabulation character, only space characters !
To easily see the changes, in N++, just display the EOL characters ( View > Show symbol > Show all characters )
To run the three S/R, below, use, exclusively, the Replace All button !

So, from our original text ,below :

                         This is
                 a
    short and simple test
                      and I
                                   strongly hope that
              everything will turn right, in the
        end !

We perform a first S/R, which adds 53 spaces, at the end of all the lines of the block

SEARCH $

REPLACE 53 spaces

We get the text below :

                         This is                                                     
                 a                                                     
    short and simple test                                                     
                      and I                                                     
                                   strongly hope that                                                     
              everything will turn right, in the                                                     
        end !

Then, we run a second S/R, which delete any range of extra spaces, beginning at column 54, in all lines of the block

SEARCH ^.{53}\K +

REPLACE EMPTY

This time, the text becomes, as below :

                         This is                     
                 a                                   
    short and simple test                            
                      and I                          
                                   strongly hope that
              everything will turn right, in the     
        end !

Finally, use the third and last S/R, below, which swap the final range of space characters with the first part of each line of the block :

SEARCH ^(.+?)( +)$

REPLACE \2\1

                                              This is
                                                    a
                                short and simple test
                                                and I
                                   strongly hope that
                   everything will turn right, in the
                                                end !

No doubt that everyone understands, at once, why a macro, with the three successive S/R, would not adapted to that task :-((

Of course, if the macro mechanism allow us to enter the value of the parameter M, we would just have to determine the longest line of the block and run the macro !

Best Regards

guy038

Ramin Parsa

@guy038

It works

Thank you very much