How do I create a custom fold in PowerShell

David A. Stewart

Is there a way to add a custom collapse option for PowerShell function Param() sections in the config file(s) for .psm1 files?

PeterJones

@David-A-Stewart ,

In general, where things fold is a function of the underlying lexer (from the Lexilla library that Notepad++ uses), and there isn’t customization available for that.

I think you could use one of the scripting plugins like PythonScript to add a custom fold point using a notification-on-change callback, and some of the commands, but I don’t know how stable custom folds are when Notepad++/Lexilla is also trying to control folding.

PeterJones

moderator note: I re-created your post under a different name; something about the previous title used is triggering a weird forum bug. Sorry to all the people who see, but cannot read, multiple copies with a similar name. I will try to clean up the database.

update: I think I’ve cleaned up the database; sorry for any who were confused by the extra empty/unavailble posts

David A. Stewart

@PeterJones Thanks, so it sounds like a feature request is my best bet, do you agree?

PeterJones

@David-A-Stewart ,

so it sounds like a feature request is my best bet

Notepad++ uses a library called Lexilla to handle the lexing (syntax highlighting and folding and the like), so you’d have to check the Lexilla Issues list and see if such a request already exists, and if not, put it in there; once the feature is in Lexilla, then Notepad++ would have to update to the most recent version of Lexilla for a future release. Good luck.

mpheath

@David-A-Stewart You could use #region and #endregion to do explicit folding in Powershell. These are case-sensitive so must be lowercase to be recognized by the Powershell lexer.

example1 :

function Test-Remainder {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory, Position=0)]
        [string]$Value,

    [Parameter(Position=1, ValueFromRemainingArguments)]
        [string[]]$Remaining
    )

    "Found $($Remaining.Count) elements"

    for ($i = 0; $i -lt $Remaining.Count; $i++) {
        "${i}: $($Remaining[$i])"
    }
}
Test-Remainder first one,two

can be edited to :

function Test-Remainder {
    #region
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory, Position=0)]
        [string]$Value,

    [Parameter(Position=1, ValueFromRemainingArguments)]
        [string[]]$Remaining
    )
    #endregion

    "Found $($Remaining.Count) elements"

    for ($i = 0; $i -lt $Remaining.Count; $i++) {
        "${i}: $($Remaining[$i])"
    }
}
Test-Remainder first one,two

There are no other explicit comments in the Powershell lexer like some lexers have, like #{ and #} to cause extra folding.

The folding options of the Powershell lexer are fold.comment, fold.compact and fold.at.else which can be changed by a scripting plugin. The fold.comment option does affect the region comment folding and the value set is 1 to allow comment folding.

David A. Stewart

@mpheath Thanks, that is what I have been doing so far, but it’s a band-aid, I do appreciate taking the time to respond. I have not dug into the Notepad++ options too much, except where I use them to write scripts.

David A. Stewart

@PeterJones Thanks, I’ll look into that.