Search++: A work in progress

guy038

Hi, @coises, @thomas-knoefel and All,

FIRST test :

The only way to bookmark the last empty line 10, that I found, is to use the regex ^((?!test).)*$ again my example text, below :


bla
blah
This is the test to do
bla
blah
test
bla
blah

Some observations :

Using Search++, in mode Regex, this regex counts 8 matches, whose line 1 with ONLY a small blue triangle at bottom of line 1 and the last empty line 10 with the calltip ^ zero length match
Using Columns++, this regex counts also 8 matches, but, this time, the first line returns, instead, the calltip ^ zero length match
Using Search++, in mode ICU this regex counts 7 matches, whose line 1 with ONLY a small blue triangle at bottom of line 1. So the line 10 is not a match

SECOND test :

Paste the text below in a new tab and search, in regex mode, for the regex ^abc

abc

abcabc    0011
abc       0012

abcabc   0085
 abc       2028
 abc       2029
abc         After the above \r\n
====================================
	abc     0009
 abc        0020
 abc     00A0
abc      00AD
 abc     2000
 abc      200A
 abc    202F
 abc     205F
　abc     3000
abc     200B
‌abc     200C
‍abc      200D
⁠abc       2060
abc   FEFF
￹abc      FFFA
￺abc      FFFB
￻abc      FFFC

May be, after pasting, you’ll have to change the line 2 which needs to be an LF char ONLY and line 5 which needs to be an CR char ONLY !

With N++ and MultiReplace the ^abc regex counts 8 matches. So a beginning of line is seen :
- At the very beginning of the file
- After a LF character
- After a FF character
- After a CR character
- After a NEL character
- After a LS character
- After a PS character
- After a \r\n string, in line 9
With the Columns++ and Search++ Regex the ^abc regex counts 4 matches. So a beginning of line is seen :
- At the very beginning of the file
- After a LF character
- After a CR character
- After a \r\n string, in line 9
With Search++ ICU, the ^abc counts 9 matches. So a beginning of line is seen, like with N++ and MultiReplace and, also, after a VT character.

Seemingly, in ICU mode, the \r\n couple is not considered as one char. Thus, the regex ^\n|Q do see the CR character as a beginning of line (^). However, in this case, I do not understand why the ^\n regex finds nothing at all !

THIRD test

Note that in Search++ Settings, I checked the Always unmark all text before Mark command. (Otherwise add to existing marked text.) option.
In addition, I chose the Bookmark lines when marking text option, in the Tools menu

Thus, in all cases, all the marked text and all the bookmarked lines should be wiped out before a new Mark command.

Using my example text, described above, I marked, in ICU mode, all the lines which match the regex ^\n|Q, as shown in the snapshot below :

Then, I simply searched for the ^\n regex. As noticed above, this regex finds nothing. However, after clicking on the Mark in Whole document option, the previous marks and bookmarks remain unchanged ?

I expected no marked text and no bookmrked line ! I suppose it’s a bug.

Best Regards

guy038

guy038

Hello, @coises,

I said, at the end of the second test section :

Thus, the regex ^\n|Q do see the CR character as a beginning of line (^)

I didn’t express myself clearly. I should have written :

Thus, the regex ^\n|Q do see the transition between each CR character to its next LF character as a beginning of line (^)

BR

guy038

Coises

@guy038 said:

The only way to bookmark the last empty line 10, that I found, is to use the regex ^((?!test).)*$

Yes, that’s the bug you found. The precise conditions are that if a match includes the last character in the file, Search++ fails to check for the possibility of a null match at the end of the file. That will be fixed in the next release.

Using Search++, in mode Regex, this regex counts 8 matches, whose line 1 with ONLY a small blue triangle at bottom of line 1 and the last empty line 10 with the calltip ^ zero length match

Yes. Where possible I use the small triangle to mark a zero-length match. There are two situations where that isn’t possible, due to Scintilla limitations: when the match is at the end of a line, before the line ending characters, and line ending characters are not shown; and when the match is at the very end of the file. In those cases, I use the ^ zero length match banner instead.

I use triangles for zero length matches in the Search++ results list and with the Show command, too. The same limitations apply with Show, but because call tips disappear when you interact with the text, I can’t really do anything about the indicators you can’t see. In the results list you can always see them because I can safely change some settings so that I can use line ending characters that Scintilla considers displayed, but that don’t actually show anything you can see.

Using Columns++, this regex counts also 8 matches, but, this time, the first line returns, instead, the calltip ^ zero length match

Yes, I hadn’t thought of the triangle method yet when I wrote Columns++.

Using Search++, in mode ICU this regex counts 7 matches, whose line 1 with ONLY a small blue triangle at bottom of line 1. So the line 10 is not a match

As best I can tell, ICU’s regex engine does not consider the position following the last character in the document to be the beginning of line, regardless of whether the last character is a line ending character. That makes sense, really, but it doesn’t conform to the way Scintilla lays out lines. So your expression doesn’t match because the circumflex doesn’t match.

With N++ and MultiReplace the ^abc regex counts 8 matches. So a beginning of line is seen :

At the very beginning of the file

After a LF character

After a FF character

After a CR character

After a NEL character

After a LS character

After a PS character

After a \r\n string, in line 9

With the Columns++ and Search++ Regex the ^abc regex counts 4 matches. So a beginning of line is seen :

At the very beginning of the file

After a LF character

After a CR character

After a \r\n string, in line 9

With Search++ ICU, the ^abc counts 9 matches. So a beginning of line is seen, like with N++ and MultiReplace and, also, after a VT character.

Yes, Columns++ and Search++ Regex do their best (I think they succeed) to treat the same things as line endings that are visible as line endings in Notepad++. So, for example, in your Total_Chars.txt, ^ matches 3 times in Columns++ and in Search++ Regex; it matches 13 times in Search++ ICU; and in Notepad++ native search, if you use Find Next (since Count ignores null matches) and count manually (making sure not to miss the match at the very beginning of the file) there are 7 matches.

Likewise, (?-s:(?!.))(?s:.) produces 6 matches in Notepad++ (you can use Count for this one), 2 matches in Columns++ and Search++ Regex, and 7 matches in Search++ ICU.

I’m not sure yet what causes the extra matches for ^ in ICU; it could be something I’ve done wrong in preparing the string, it could be a bug in ICU4C, or could just be something I don’t understand.

Seemingly, in ICU mode, the \r\n couple is not considered as one char. Thus, the regex ^\n|Q do see the CR character as a beginning of line (^). However, in this case, I do not understand why the ^\n regex finds nothing at all !

ICU appears to treat ^ differently in different expressions. So far, it looks to me as if, when it is the first thing to match in the only alternative, it treats CRLF as one, but when it’s anywhere else, it treats CR and LF each as line ending characters even when they are together in that order. That’s just from trying to infer a pattern behind what I’ve observed; I can’t find any documentation of such a thing. It could be a bug, or just something I don’t know.

Then, I simply searched for the ^\n regex. As noticed above, this regex finds nothing. However, after clicking on the Mark in Whole document option, the previous marks and bookmarks remain unchanged ?

I expected no marked text and no bookmrked line ! I suppose it’s a bug.

It is working as intended, but perhaps the design is confusing. I had to keep the text in the Settings dialog reasonably brief, but I see I didn’t describe the details correctly in the help.

Existing marks (and bookmarks, if applicable) are cleared if the command is successful, meaning it finds at least one match. (Internally, it waits until it finds the first match and only clears the existing marks after it has found the first match, but before it marks it.) If there is an error, or if no match is found, nothing is cleared.

Since you can’t “undo” changes in marks and bookmarks, I thought that at least in the case where someone mistypes a search string resulting in no matches, it would be better not to lose the marks (or selections, or shown text and lines, as the case might be), so one could easily try again.