How do I sort strings separated by commas?

C Bacca

How do I sort these comma-delimited strings in Notepad++ v8.1.5 from 2021? Sorry Notepad++ cannot be updated right now I’m in the middle of a rush project.

zk1, abc, 11a, bba1, lakw, lw1, ffs, lla, lla1, zxk2

If I use Python REPL the strings have to be quoted and I have many more strings than in the example above.

print(sorted('zk1', 'abc', '11a'))

This is a common task that I have. Whether I’m sorting variable names on the same line, or items in a comma-separated list. Sometimes the items are separated by a semi-colon “;”.

Thank you.

Alan Kilborn

@C-Bacca:

Step 1: Select the strings (on a single line, do not include the line ending)
Step 2: Ctrl+h replace , with \r\n taking care to checkmark Regular expression and In selection
Step 3: Run your desired sort (down in the Line operations submenu on the Edit menu)
Step 4: Ctrl+h replace \r\n with , taking care to checkmark Regular expression and In selection

dr ramaanand

@C-Bacca if the solution/answer provided by @Alan-Kilborn is not what you are looking for, please let us know what you mean by “sort out”. If you want to replace the strings just before each , (comma) you can hit ctrl+h and in the pop-up, select the regular expression mode, put (^|, )(.*?)(?=,) in the Find field, $1uniquestring in the Replace field and hit Replace/Replace All which will replace all your strings with the term, “uniquestring” - remember that if you hit only Replace, you have to replace each string, one at a time

C Bacca

@Alan-Kilborn This is what I want. But is there a way to make this a series of steps, like a macro, and link the macro to a single key press?

I’m trying to minimize key presses here. I can get super busy at times.

Alan Kilborn

@C-Bacca said in How do I sort strings separated by commas?:

is there a way to make this a series of steps, like a macro,

Yes, you should be able to record it and save it as a macro.
Note that Step 1 would not be part of the macro, but would be something that you have to do before running the macro.
For more on macros see HERE.