Need help with custom sort operations

Coises

@Dean-Corso If it helps you, my plugin Columns++ (still in alpha stage, though apparently stable) can sort column selections containing tabs.

The reason the native sorts in Notepad++ don’t work is because they determine the first and last character positions of the rectangular selection in the first line of the selection and then apply those character positions to all lines; they don’t use the line-by-line contents of the rectangular selection.

Dean-Corso

@Coises

Thank you for that info. I did test your plugin and it seems to work to do the sort operation without conversion. I also see your plugin has also some more interesting functions I need to check out more.

I think one of the problem in npp & plugin is that in both are missing some clear methods to use specific operations just for all lines OR selection with or without to handle lines you know what I mean?

Example: Sort function.
1.) I want to handle all lines
2.) I want to handle just my selection (normal case)
3.) I want to handle rectangle selection + lines
4.) I want to handle rectangle selection itself only

Point 1 & 2 seems to work good so far in npp to do that but in special cases 3 & 4 it could be problematic.

When I sort any lines (selected or not) then empty lines getting removed. Why? How to prevent that? On first view it looks good to remove blank lines but in case when I want to keep the lines original then I need to add empty lines manually after sorting.

What is when I just want to sort the content of my rectangle selection without to move all the lines? I see its also not doable so far in npp.

What is when I want to sort my rectangle selected part / lines and ignore all blank chars till the first char begins? Not working as I can see and I need to bring all the selected lines starting at the same position point like this…(I did rectangle select the right part)

66666		Qqqqqqq
55555555				Zzzzzzz
777				Aaaaaaa
88888888888		Xxxxxxx

…and before I can sort I need to change them to this…

66666               Qqqqqqq
55555555            Zzzzzzz
777                 Aaaaaaa
88888888888         Xxxxxxx

…and now I can do a sort which works and moves all lines. But what if I want just to sort that selection only and keep the left part / lines unchanged? Like this…

66666               Aaaaaaa
55555555            Qqqqqqq
777                 Xxxxxxx
88888888888         Zzzzzzz

…only selection was sorted and the rest is same. So is it too specific what I want?

Coises

@Dean-Corso said in Need help with custom sort operations:

Example: Sort function.
1.) I want to handle all lines
2.) I want to handle just my selection (normal case)
3.) I want to handle rectangle selection + lines
4.) I want to handle rectangle selection itself only

Point 1 & 2 seems to work good so far in npp to do that but in special cases 3 & 4 it could be problematic.

Case 3 should work using Columns++. It also works with the built-in Notepad++ sorts provided you have a fixed-pitch font and no tabs.

Case 4 can be handled easily this way:

Make the rectangular selection.
Copy the selection to the clipboard.
Open a new tab and paste the selection into it.
Sort the new tab.
Make a rectangular selection encompassing all the data.
Copy the selection to the clipboard.
Switch back to the original tab and paste the data into the rectangular selection.

Doing this in one step, instead of copying and pasting into a temporary tab, is something I could include in Columns++. I can’t promise, but the next time I make changes I’ll see if it can be added without making things too clumsy or complicated.

When I sort any lines (selected or not) then empty lines getting removed. Why? How to prevent that? On first view it looks good to remove blank lines but in case when I want to keep the lines original then I need to add empty lines manually after sorting.

What is when I just want to sort the content of my rectangle selection without to move all the lines? I see its also not doable so far in npp.

That’s a bit more complicated. The blank lines aren’t being removed, they’re just sorting, the same as all the other lines; to the beginning if it’s an ascending sort or to the end if it’s a descending sort. If you want to skip sorting those lines, then it becomes confusing. Do they serve as breaks — meaning each section between blank lines is sorted, but lines aren’t moved across blank lines? Or do all the non-blank lines get sorted, but then positioned only where non-blank lines occurred before, leaving the blank lines at the same line number positions? Or do the blank lines “stick with” the preceding non-blank line? Or the following non-blank line? Or something else?

I think there are too many variations in what someone could want to make it practical to implement.

What is when I want to sort my rectangle selected part / lines and ignore all blank chars till the first char begins? Not working as I can see and I need to bring all the selected lines starting at the same position point like this…(I did rectangle select the right part)
66666		Qqqqqqq
55555555				Zzzzzzz
777				Aaaaaaa
88888888888		Xxxxxxx
…and before I can sort I need to change them to this…
66666               Qqqqqqq
55555555            Zzzzzzz
777                 Aaaaaaa
88888888888         Xxxxxxx

At present, none of the sorts have an option to ignore leading blanks, but that is a logical request. For this, too, I’ll say that when I next make some changes to Columns++, I will see if something like this can work. Offhand, I think it might be handy to make a sort that applies a user-specified regular expression to each line in a rectangular selection to determine the sort key. Skipping leading blanks would be an easy special case of that.

Dean-Corso

@Coises

Thank you for the feedback. Yes I have seen that I can copy / paste the rectangle selection using another tab or free space below etc but this is again a detour I want to prevent of course. Sounds good if you could add some more features in your plugin if possible. I already added your plugin releases into my RSS feed list.

I was trying around to handle specific tasks I got in my mind when editing different text and lines using Notepad++ and have seen that not all I wanna do is doable yet. Would be good if you could add more features into your plugin later to have more capabilities & possibilities to edit text, lines and selections etc. Just another suggestion to you @Coises, could you also add that specific sort method (block sort / move) I did requested and @Mark-Olson made that python script for that. Maybe you can adapt it and include it into your plugin sort operation with extra custom dialog to enter the user data. Thanks.

PS: Just a question about this forum style. How to reply & see the forum at the same time? Each time when I wanna reply an answer then the text field does popup as overlay and I can’t see the text of the posts anymore and I can just move this reply window a little bit down only. I would like to see all at once like in other forums too. How to do that here?

Mark Olson

@Dean-Corso
These are very interesting ideas! Many of them are pretty tricky to implement. The good news is that if you are feeling adventurous and want to learn some useful skills, you can begin trying to implement such solutions yourself by learning regular expressions and Python. By the way, this is not me telling you to leave us alone, but rather a general observation that sometimes if you want something done right you just have to do it yourself.
I can’t speak for Coises, of course, but a few suggestions about feature requests:

There are many excellent features that are simply beyond what the developer envisions as the scope of their application. For instance, I have a JSON plugin. A user might say, “hey, I’d like a CSV parser so I can use your tree view for CSV files as well!” And that would be really cool! The trouble is that a CSV parser is just outside the scope of my plugin, and it opens the door for even more “feature creep”.
I have often created a script solution that seemed to me like it solved two or three problems simultaneously, and I would never have to do this complicated multi-step process again. Instead, I created a fragile tool that solved two or three problems badly, and I often wound up having to do the multi-step process anyway because I could use more effective specialized tools for each step.

Dean-Corso

@Mark-Olson

So I know what you mean and learning some helpfully language +/- Regular Expression would make me more independent to handle specific tasks by myself in the best case. I tried to keep RegEx Syntax in my mind but always forget it when not using it anymore for a longer while. Also have problem with those different syntax styles I have to use here or there what makes it also more problematic for me. Will see what I can do with python script in the future. Otherwise I will ask you guys again to get some help if you don’t mind.

Your script works very good so far and didn’t found any issues yet. I also made a quick accessible icon in the toolbar to prevent the long menu choosing method. Thank you.

Dean-Corso

@Mark-Olson

I just have a little question about your script you made (last one you did post here). So as I said it’s working but I have a problem with the sort operation which is ascending & descending what is good and as I wanted but I need it with the ignore case option. So could you add or just change it in the script etc? Thank you.

Mark Olson

@Dean-Corso said in Need help with custom sort operations:

I need it with the ignore case option. So could you add or just change it in the script etc?

Done!

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
#########################################
#
#  sort_line_blocks_and_headers
#
#########################################

# references:
#  https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/24742/need-help-with-custom-sort-operations

# HOW IT WORKS:
# 1. Divide the document into blocks of N lines, of which the top M lines are the header.
# 2. Sort the header of each block
# 3. Sort the blocks by the sorted headers.
# EXAMPLE INPUT:
# CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
# BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
# 3
# BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
# aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
# 2
# CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
# AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
# 1
# bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
# bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
# 4
# USE THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS:
# [ 3 ]Lines per block
# [ x ]Sort blocks least to greatest
# [ 2 ]Lines in header
# [ x ]Sort header least to greatest
# [ x ]Case-insensitive sort
# RESULT:
# aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
# BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
# 2
# AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
# CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
# 1
# bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
# bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
# 4
# BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
# CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
# 3
from __future__ import print_function
import re
from Npp import *


def option_check(input_text, option_text, type_):
    m = re.search(r'\\[([^]]+)\\] ?' + option_text, input_text)
    valstrip = '' if not m else m.group(1).strip()
    # print(option_text, valstrip, type_(valstrip))
    return type_(valstrip)


def main():
    eol = [ '\r\n', '\r', '\n' ][ editor.getEOLMode() ]
    
    while True:
        user_options = notepad.prompt('Options for sorting line blocks and headers',
            'Sort line blocks and headers',
            '\r\n'.join([
             '[ 3 ]Lines per block',
             '[ x ]Sort blocks least to greatest',
             '[ 1 ]Lines in header',
             '[ x ]Sort header least to greatest',
             '[ x ]Case-insensitive sort']))
        if not (user_options and user_options.strip()):
            return
        try:
            lines_per_block = option_check(user_options, 'Lines per block', int)
            assert lines_per_block >= 1
        except:
            notepad.messageBox('lines per block must be integer >= 1')
            continue
        reverse_blocks = not option_check(user_options, 'Sort blocks least', bool)
        try:
            lines_in_header = option_check(user_options, 'Lines in header', int)
            assert 1 <= lines_in_header <= lines_per_block
        except:
            notepad.messageBox('lines in header must be integer <= lines in block and >= 1')
            continue
        reverse_header = not option_check(user_options, 'Sort header', bool)
        ignorecase = option_check(user_options, 'Case-insensitive', bool)
        break
    
    lines_not_in_header = lines_per_block - lines_in_header
    if lines_not_in_header:
        find_regex = '(?-s)((?:.*\R){%s})((?:.*(?:\R|\Z)){%s})' % (lines_in_header, lines_not_in_header)
    else:
        find_regex = '(?-s)((?:.*(?:\R|\Z)){%s})' % lines_in_header
    if ignorecase:
        find_regex = '(?i)' + find_regex
    # print(find_regex)
    header_block_list = []
    doc_len = editor.getLength()
    
    def on_match(m):
        is_last_match = m.span()[1] == doc_len
        group1 = m.group(1)
        if not group1:
            return
        header = group1.splitlines()
        # print('header before sort = {h}'.format(h=header))
        if ignorecase:
            header.sort(key=str.upper, reverse=reverse_header)
        else:
            header.sort(reverse=reverse_header)
        # print('header after sort = {h}'.format(h=header))
        sorted_header = eol.join(header)
        if lines_not_in_header:
            edited_block = sorted_header + eol + m.group(2)
        else:
            edited_block = sorted_header
        if not is_last_match and edited_block.endswith(eol):
            edited_block = edited_block[:-len(eol)]
        header_block_list.append((sorted_header, edited_block))
    
    editor.research(find_regex, on_match)
    if ignorecase:
        header_block_list.sort(key=lambda x: x[0].upper(), reverse=reverse_blocks)
    else:
        header_block_list.sort(key=lambda x: x[0], reverse=reverse_blocks)
    sorted_blocks_str = eol.join(x[1] for x in header_block_list)
    # print(header_block_list)
    editor.setText(sorted_blocks_str)
    
if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Dean-Corso

@Mark-Olson

Thank you very much Mark. Works.