Not a big burden, only the “print” line for that…

and the encode is not needed as py2 returns bytes
as well as the b before the “%p”.

But…What’s your magic behind f_editor?

Nothing, this is just my object which represents the editor in the find in files window.
As you said, what you would have expected must be done on your side.

I leave the changes from py3 to py2 to you

Not a big burden, only the “print” line for that…

But…What’s your magic behind f_editor? Instead of that I would have expected something like what I did in the earlier code I posted in this thread; something much messier, like:

ctypes.WinDLL('SciLexer.dll', use_last_error=True).Scintilla_DirectFunction(self.direct_pointer, 2182, length_of_text, text_of_document)```

but using a different number than `2182` and different parameters, of course...

Made me a bit of a headache because I assumed that the pointer was an integer data type
but the npp code actually said that it was a const char pointer.
In short, here’s a python script that can determine the positions of the matches.

I leave the changes from py3 to py2 to you :-)

class SearchResultMarking(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [('_start', ctypes.c_long),
                ('_end', ctypes.c_long)]


class SearchResultMarkings(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [('_length', ctypes.c_long),
                ('_markings', ctypes.POINTER(SearchResultMarking))]


# const char *addrMarkingsStruct = (styler.pprops)->Get("@MarkingsStruct");
addrMarkingsStruct = f_editor.getProperty("@MarkingsStruct").encode()

# SearchResultMarkings* pMarkings = NULL;
pMarkings = ctypes.pointer(SearchResultMarkings())

# sscanf(addrMarkingsStruct, "%p", (void**)&pMarkings);
ctypes.cdll.msvcrt.sscanf(addrMarkingsStruct, b"%p", ctypes.byref(pMarkings))

for i in range(pMarkings.contents._length):
    print(f'line {i} start:{pMarkings.contents._markings[i]._start} - end:{pMarkings.contents._markings[i]._end}')

Is N++ source using hardcoded magic numbers for this instead of

Not sure I understand the question correctly.
Every lexer has hard coded style ids, which then get mapped
with a color via stylers.xml. See searchResult.

how N++ identifies the hit text

It uses an internal struct MarkingsStruct which seems to be filled and provided
as a property to the document. Maybe something you can use to your advantage?

BTW, I’m still confused after looking at N++ source on how N++ identifies the hit text, so that the “search result” lexer knows where it is, so if you can shed any light on that… if you’re sufficiently interested in doing so… :-)

Why not using the styling information to identify the matched text?

Well, TBH when I earlier went searching in the N++ source code for SCE_SEARCHRESULT_*, I saw no occurrences of SCE_SEARCHRESULT_WORD2SEARCH occurring at all, so I was confused as to how it worked and was thinking it might not be possible at all to get this info via PS, even with ctypes usage.

But with some experimentation with SCI_GETSTYLEAT it seems that I can recall the info; for example, in my “hit” text I get a style result of 4, which is indeed SCE_SEARCHRESULT_WORD2SEARCH.

Is N++ source using hardcoded magic numbers for this instead of the “tags”, or some other mechanism that is strange or at least isn’t clear to me?

Hmm, had a thought to search the Scintilla part of N++, where I do see SCE_SEARCHRESULT_WORD2SEARCH used. That must be how it is done.

Why not using the styling information to identify the matched text?

Thank you other guys as well.

Awesome forum.

(I also confirmed that you cannot use File > Copy, because that’s using the active editor window, even when Find result is the foreground pane.)

Presume you meant:

(I also confirmed that you cannot use Edit > Copy, because that’s using the active editor window, even when Find result is the foreground pane.)

• A Ctrl + A action ( or right-click on the Select All option ), followed with an Ctrl + C action and, finally, a Ctrl + V action, in a new tab, do copy all Find result contents. So your regex works fine, extracting the absolute pathnames of all the files involved in the search !

• A Ctrl + A action ( or right-click on the Select All option ), followed with a right-click on the Copy option and, finally, a Ctrl + V action, in a new tab, only copy the lines, containing the matched string, from all the files scanned, in the Find result window

I thought I would emphasize this to @Ekopalypse : the behavior is different depending on whether you use keystrokes or menu selection for the copy. I just replicated this on portable 7.8.1-64bit. If you use the Ctrl+C keystroke, it copies the filename; if you use RClick > Copy, it only copies the lines, not the filenames. (I also confirmed that you cannot use File > Copy, because that’s using the active editor window, even when Find result is the foreground pane.) I pasted not only into Notepad++, but into other apps as well, confirming that it’s actually the copy-operation that’s different depending on Ctrl+C vs RClick > Copy.

I went back to my 7.7.1-64bit, and it behaves the same way, with Ctrl+C vs RClick > Copy having separate behavior.

May be a plugin issue ?

This is a good point. @Ekopalypse can you try testing this copy/paste behavior again with a very-clean 7.8.1?

I did a quick test and I confirm that the Alan’s behavior seems to be the default one !

My configuration :

Notepad++ v7.8.1   (32-bit)
Build time : Oct 27 2019 - 22:46:07
Path : D:\@@\781\notepad++.exe
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : ON
OS Name : Microsoft Windows XP (32-bit) 
OS Build : 2600.0
Plugins : DSpellCheck.dll ExtSettings.dll mimeTools.dll NppConverter.dll NppExport.dll 

• A Ctrl + A action ( or right-click on the Select All option ), followed with an Ctrl + C action and, finally, a Ctrl + V action, in a new tab, do copy all Find result contents. So your regex works fine, extracting the absolute pathnames of all the files involved in the search !

• A Ctrl + A action ( or right-click on the Select All option ), followed with a right-click on the Copy option and, finally, a Ctrl + V action, in a new tab, only copy the lines, containing the matched string, from all the files scanned, in the Find result window

May be a plugin issue ?

Best Regards

guy038

TL;DR: Save all Notepad++ files (so that none have red icons) before running the script – or when doing Eko’s originally suggested solution!

import ctypes
from ctypes.wintypes import BOOL, HWND, LPARAM
import re

class FindResultPanel(object):

    def __init__(self):

        WNDENUMPROC = ctypes.WINFUNCTYPE(BOOL, HWND,LPARAM)
        FindWindow = ctypes.windll.user32.FindWindowW
        GetWindowText = ctypes.windll.user32.GetWindowTextW
        GetWindowTextLength = ctypes.windll.user32.GetWindowTextLengthW
        SendMessage = ctypes.windll.user32.SendMessageW
        EnumChildWindows = ctypes.windll.user32.EnumChildWindows
        GetClassName = ctypes.windll.user32.GetClassNameW
        curr_class = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer(256)

        tag1 = 0

        find_result_panel_scintilla_handle_list = []

        def foreach_window(hwnd, lParam):
            tag2 = 1
            if lParam == tag1:
                cc = curr_class[:GetClassName(hwnd, curr_class, 256)]
                if cc == u'#32770':
                    length = GetWindowTextLength(hwnd)
                    if length > 0:
                        buff = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer(length + 1)
                        GetWindowText(hwnd, buff, length + 1)
                        if buff.value == u'Find result':
                            EnumChildWindows(hwnd, WNDENUMPROC(foreach_window), tag2)
            elif lParam == tag2:
                cc = curr_class[:GetClassName(hwnd, curr_class, 256)]
                length = GetWindowTextLength(hwnd)
                if length > 0:
                    buff = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer(length + 1)
                    GetWindowText(hwnd, buff, length + 1)
                    if cc == u'Scintilla':
                        find_result_panel_scintilla_handle_list.append(hwnd)
                        return False  # stop enumeration
            return True  # continue enumeration

        EnumChildWindows(FindWindow(u'Notepad++', None), WNDENUMPROC(foreach_window), tag1)

        try:
            hwnd = find_result_panel_scintilla_handle_list[-1]
        except IndexError:
            raise RuntimeError('No Find result window found')

        self.hwnd = hwnd

        # from Scintilla.iface ( https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/blob/master/scintilla/include/Scintilla.iface )
        # Retrieve a pointer value to use as the first argument when calling the function returned by GetDirectFunction.
        #get int GetDirectPointer=2185(,)
        self.direct_pointer = SendMessage(self.hwnd, 2185, 0, 0)

    def GetText(self):

        # https://www.scintilla.org/ScintillaDoc.html#SCI_GETTEXT
        # Retrieve all the text in the document.
        # Returns number of characters retrieved.
        # Result is NUL-terminated.
        #fun position GetText=2182(position length, stringresult text)
        # position -> intptr_t position in a document
        # stringresult -> pointer to character, NULL-> return size of result
        length_of_text = ctypes.WinDLL('SciLexer.dll', use_last_error=True).Scintilla_DirectFunction(self.direct_pointer, 2182, 0, 0)
        text_of_document = ctypes.c_char_p('\0' * (length_of_text + 1))  # allocate buffer to hold text
        ctypes.WinDLL('SciLexer.dll', use_last_error=True).Scintilla_DirectFunction(self.direct_pointer, 2182, length_of_text, text_of_document)
        return text_of_document.value

    def GetFoldLevel(self, line_number):

        # https://www.scintilla.org/ScintillaDoc.html#SCI_GETFOLDLEVEL
        # Retrieve the fold level of a line.
        #get FoldLevel GetFoldLevel=2223(line line,)
        SC_FOLDLEVELNUMBERMASK = 0x0FFF
        return ctypes.WinDLL('SciLexer.dll', use_last_error=True).Scintilla_DirectFunction(self.direct_pointer, 2223, line_number, 0) & SC_FOLDLEVELNUMBERMASK

    def GetFoldExpanded(self, line_number):

        # https://www.scintilla.org/ScintillaDoc.html#SCI_GETFOLDEXPANDED
        # Is a header line expanded?
        #get bool GetFoldExpanded=2230(line line,)
        return ctypes.WinDLL('SciLexer.dll', use_last_error=True).Scintilla_DirectFunction(self.direct_pointer, 2230, line_number, 0)

try:

    find_result_panel = FindResultPanel()

except RuntimeError:

    notepad.messageBox('Could not find Find-result window;\r\nMaybe you have not yet run a search that would create it?', '')

else:

    find_result_text = find_result_panel.GetText()

    print_all = True if 0 else False
    copy_line_info_that_user_can_see = True if 0 else False
    copy_filepaths_that_user_can_see = True if 1 else False
    unique_filepaths_list = []

    recent_start_expanded = True
    recent_filepath_expanded = True
    for (line_number, line_contents) in enumerate(find_result_text.splitlines()):
        if print_all:
            print(line_number, find_result_panel.GetFoldLevel(line_number), find_result_panel.GetFoldExpanded(line_number), line_contents)
        else:
            if line_contents.startswith('Search'):
                recent_start_expanded = True if find_result_panel.GetFoldExpanded(line_number) else False
            elif line_contents.startswith(' '):
                recent_filepath_expanded = True if find_result_panel.GetFoldExpanded(line_number) else False
            if copy_line_info_that_user_can_see:
                if line_contents.startswith('Search'):
                    if waiting_for_start:
                        pass
            elif copy_filepaths_that_user_can_see:
                if line_contents.startswith(' '):
                    if recent_start_expanded:
                        _ = re.sub(r'^\s+(.+?) \(\d+\shits?\)$', r'\1', line_contents)
                        if _ not in unique_filepaths_list: unique_filepaths_list.append(_)

    if copy_filepaths_that_user_can_see:
        for _ in unique_filepaths_list: print(_)

In this script, we see in the last line that there is something called unique_filepaths_list.

We can put this to use for the OP’s task by adding a bit more code at the bottom:

    keep_going = True
    while keep_going:
        destination_dir = notepad.prompt('Enter destination directory:', 'Copy files with hits', '')
        if destination_dir == None:
            keep_going = False  # cancel was pressed
        elif os.path.isdir(destination_dir): break

    if keep_going:
        from shutil import copy
        for source_file in unique_filepaths_list:
            try:
                copy(source_file, destination_dir)
            except:
                notepad.messageBox('Problem copying the file:\r\n"{}"\r\nto the folder:\r\n"{}"'.format(source_file, destination_dir), '')

Running the code now (after doing a search that populates the Find-result window with the desired results) will result in the following popup prompt:

Putting a valid folder name in the box and pressing OK will complete the desired copy operation.

I’m testing this on 7.8.1

I still use 7.8 day-to-day so my previous results were with that. But…switching to 7.8.1 (64 bits) temporarily I do not see any change; meaning that I don’t see it working the way you do!

that is strange, I only see the searched content, regardless if I select all
or only partial results. The first line and every “filename line” gets stripped off.
I’m testing this on 7.8.1

ctrl+c does not copy the filenames, only the content found, at least for me, do you see different behavior on your side?

I do see different behavior; to me your result seems like a right-click copy operation in the Find-result window.

Here’s some results for me (I did a ctrl+a in the Find-result window, then 3 different copy/paste ops into a new editor tab):

Meaning select the desired result data in the Find result window, and then drag-n-drop that.

Yes, ctrl+c does not copy the filenames, only the content found, at least for me, do you see different behavior on your side?

drag and drop the result in a file with a fixed name

Meaning select the desired result data in the Find result window, and then drag-n-drop that.

it needs to be drag and drop

Why does it need to be drag-n-drop? Wouldn’t ctrl+c be the same?

No, there is no such feature builtin in but if this is something you need more often you could create a batch file and follow a procedure.
Something like:

• do your search
• drag and drop the result in a file which a fixed name (it needs to be drag and drop)
• replace the unneeded content by using a regex like
  find what: (?-is)(?:(?:^Search "|\tLine).*\R| \(\d+ hits?\))
replace with is empty
  press replace all (or record once a macro and run macro after drag and drop
• run via Run menu something like:
  cmd /k FOR /F %i IN (D:\FIXED_NAME_FILE) DO copy %i D:\temp\put_it_in_here\

If you replace cmd /k by cmd /c shell window gets closed automatically.

The search term was found in 228 files that are stored in several different subfolders. I would like to save all 228 files in a different location/folder.