Scripts to align text
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This pair of scripts line up multiple lines of text on a given character (or characters), inserting padding as needed so the character is in the same column in all lines.
These serve as alternatives to the TextFX Edit: “Line up multiple lines” options. @peterjones The FAQ on “How do I Replicate the Features of TextFX?” may offer these as another alternative.
These require PythonScript v3.0.x (currently v3.0.16).
At present, the alignment character is taken as the character at the top of the current selection. You can uncomment some code to change this policy to instead take the alignment character from within the selection at whichever end has the cursor. Either way, if that character is white space, the user is prompted to type the character (or characters). If you really wish to align on a white space character, you can just click OK at the prompt.
When prompted to type the alignment character, the user may enter a sequence of characters, e.g., “–>”, in which case the alignment is on the instances of that entire character sequence. For example, if the user enters “–>” at the prompt, then instances of the “-” character get aligned only if they’re followed immediately by the characters “->”, while instances of, say, “-1” and "- " remain unaltered.
If there is no current selection, then aligns all lines in the editor. If there is a current selection, then aligns only the lines that are at least partially included in the selection, and the selection is changed to the entire block of newly-padded lines.
The default is to align all instances of the specific character, but I include a second stript align_text_1.py to override that default and align only the first instance of the character in each line. If desired, you can create additional, similar scripts to align the first 2 instances, or 3, etc.
In my case, I used the Shortcut Mapper to assign keys
- align_text.py Ctrl+=
- align_text_1.py Ctrl+Shift+=
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align_text.py:
--------------------------------------------#------------------------------------------------------------------------ # If the character specified in the current selection is a white space, # then prompt the user to enter the alignment character (or characters), # using this character as the initial default. #------------------------------------------------------------------------ default_align_char = ',' def align_selected_text(max_align_char_count = None): """Insert padding into the lines in the selection, as needed, to align up to max_align_char_count instances of a specific character or string of characters The default is to align all instances of the specific character. At present, the alignment character is taken as the character at the top of the current selection. You can uncomment some code below to change this policy to instead take the alignment character from within the selection at whichever end has the cursor. Either way, if that character is white space, the user is prompted to type the character (or characters). If you really wish to align on a white space character, you can just click OK at the prompt. When prompted to type the alignment character, the user may enter a sequence of characters, e.g., "-->", in which case the alignment is on the instances of that entire character sequence. For example, if the user enters "-->" at the prompt, then instances of the "-" character get aligned only if they're followed immediately by the characters "->", while instances of, say, "-1" and "- " remain unaltered. If there is no current selection, then aligns all lines in the editor. If there is a current selection, then aligns only the lines that are at least partially included in the selection, and the selection is changed to the entire block of newly-padded lines. Parameters ---------- max_align_char_count : positive integer, optional The maximum number of instances to align of the specific character. For example, set to 1 to align only the first instance of the character on each line. The default is to align all instances of the specific character. """ from Npp import editor #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # For the alignment character, take the character just inside the bounds of # the selection block (at either the start or the end, as determined below). #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- editor.targetFromSelection() selected_text = editor.getTargetText() # Use this code to get the align_char unconditionally from the start # of the selection. align_char = selected_text[0] # Optionally use this code to get the align_char from within the selection # at whichever end has the cursor. # (startByte, endByte) = editor.getUserCharSelection() # if startByte == editor.getCurrentPos(): # align_char = selected_text[0] # else: # align_char = selected_text[-1] # If the character from the selection seems implausible as the # align_char, then prompt the user for it. if align_char.isspace(): from Npp import notepad global default_align_char align_char = notepad.prompt('Align character:', 'Enter Alignment Character', default_align_char) if align_char is not None: default_align_char = align_char #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #%% Get the lines of text within the selected alignment block #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (startLine, endLine) = editor.getUserLineSelection() startPos = editor.positionFromLine(startLine) endPos = editor.getLineEndPosition(endLine) text_lines = editor.getTextRange(startPos, endPos).splitlines(True) #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Remember whether there is a user-selected block, so we can restore a # corresponding selection after aligning the text. #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- restore_selection = editor.getSelectionStart() != editor.getSelectionEnd() #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Align all instances of align_char within the lines of text #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- if align_char is not None: # Enable the following to save the align_char, however it was determined, # to be the default_align_char when prompting for it next time. # default_align_char = align_char if max_align_char_count is None: align_char_count = max(line.count(align_char) for line in text_lines) else: align_char_count = max_align_char_count start = 0 for instance in range(align_char_count): # Set the target column using the index of the align_char, ignoring # immediately preceding space, or the length of the line tgt_char_col = max(len(line[:line.find(align_char, start)].rstrip()) for line in text_lines) for (idx,line) in enumerate(text_lines): align_char_col = line.find(align_char, start) if align_char_col >= 0: text_lines[idx] = line[:align_char_col].rstrip().ljust(tgt_char_col) \ + line[align_char_col:] start += tgt_char_col + len(align_char) editor.setTarget(startPos, endPos) editor.replaceTarget(''.join(text_lines)) if restore_selection: startPos = editor.positionFromLine(startLine) endPos = editor.getLineEndPosition(endLine) editor.setSelectionStart(startPos) editor.setSelectionEnd(endPos) if __name__ == '__main__': align_selected_text()--------------------------------------------
align_text_1.py:
--------------------------------------------from align_text import align_selected_text align_selected_text(max_align_char_count = 1) -
The code below fixes a bug in the script originally posted. I’d fixed this bug once before, and it embarrasses me that it somehow got reintroduced. <sigh/>
align_text.py:
#------------------------------------------------------------------------ # If the character specified in the current selection is a white space, # then prompt the user to enter the alignment character (or characters), # using this character as the initial default. #------------------------------------------------------------------------ default_align_char = ',' def align_selected_text(max_align_char_count = None): """Insert padding into the lines in the selection, as needed, to align up to max_align_char_count instances of a specific character or string of characters The default is to align all instances of the specific character. At present, the alignment character is taken as the character at the top of the current selection. You can uncomment some code below to change this policy to instead take the alignment character from within the selection at whichever end has the cursor. Either way, if that character is white space, the user is prompted to type the character (or characters). If you really wish to align on a white space character, you can just click OK at the prompt. When prompted to type the alignment character, the user may enter a sequence of characters, e.g., "-->", in which case the alignment is on the instances of that entire character sequence. For example, if the user enters "-->" at the prompt, then instances of the "-" character get aligned only if they're followed immediately by the characters "->", while instances of, say, "-1" and "- " remain unaltered. If there is no current selection, then aligns all lines in the editor. If there is a current selection, then aligns only the lines that are at least partially included in the selection, and the selection is changed to the entire block of newly-padded lines. Parameters ---------- max_align_char_count : positive integer, optional The maximum number of instances to align of the specific character. For example, set to 1 to align only the first instance of the character on each line. The default is to align all instances of the specific character. """ from Npp import editor #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # For the alignment character, take the character just inside the bounds of # the selection block (at either the start or the end, as determined below). #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- editor.targetFromSelection() selected_text = editor.getTargetText() # Use this code to get the align_char unconditionally from the start # of the selection. align_char = selected_text[0] # Optionally use this code to get the align_char from within the selection # at whichever end has the cursor. # (startByte, endByte) = editor.getUserCharSelection() # if startByte == editor.getCurrentPos(): # align_char = selected_text[0] # else: # align_char = selected_text[-1] # If the character from the selection seems implausible as the # align_char, then prompt the user for it. if align_char.isspace(): from Npp import notepad global default_align_char align_char = notepad.prompt('Align character:', 'Enter Alignment Character', default_align_char) if align_char is not None: default_align_char = align_char #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #%% Get the lines of text within the selected alignment block #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (startLine, endLine) = editor.getUserLineSelection() startPos = editor.positionFromLine(startLine) endPos = editor.getLineEndPosition(endLine) text_lines = editor.getTextRange(startPos, endPos).splitlines(True) #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Remember whether there is a user-selected block, so we can restore a # corresponding selection after aligning the text. #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- restore_selection = editor.getSelectionStart() != editor.getSelectionEnd() #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Align all instances of align_char within the lines of text #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- if align_char is not None: # Enable the following to save the align_char, however it was determined, # to be the default_align_char when prompting for it next time. # default_align_char = align_char if max_align_char_count is None: align_char_count = max(line.count(align_char) for line in text_lines) else: align_char_count = max_align_char_count start = 0 for instance in range(align_char_count): # Set the target column using the index of the align_char, ignoring # immediately preceding space, or the length of the line tgt_char_col = max(len(line[:line.find(align_char, start)].rstrip()) for line in text_lines) for (idx,line) in enumerate(text_lines): align_char_col = line.find(align_char, start) if align_char_col >= 0: text_lines[idx] = line[:align_char_col].rstrip().ljust(tgt_char_col) \ + line[align_char_col:] start = tgt_char_col + len(align_char) editor.setTarget(startPos, endPos) editor.replaceTarget(''.join(text_lines)) if restore_selection: startPos = editor.positionFromLine(startLine) endPos = editor.getLineEndPosition(endLine) editor.setSelectionStart(startPos) editor.setSelectionEnd(endPos) if __name__ == '__main__': align_selected_text() -
