Modify all instances of selection a la columnar selection

[Gustave Stresen-Reuter]

Is it possible to select a word, start typing, and at the same time update every instance of that word the same way the vertical selection works (select a column of text and start typing and all lines are updated)?

TIA,

Ted

[Christopher Stone]

On Jul 13, 2016, at 08:59, Gustave Stresen-Reuter <tedmas...@gmail.com> wrote:

Is it possible to select a word, start typing, and at the same time update every instance of that word the same way the vertical selection works (select a column of text and start typing and all lines are updated)?

______________________________________________________________________

Hey Ted,

No.  Based on recent changes I have to think this feature is bouncing around in the back of Rich's brain though.  :)

That sort of refactoring has been commonly available in various IDEs and programming editors for a long time and is bloody useful, so I hope it makes its way into BBEdit sometime soon.

In the meantime it's possible to do this in a less organic fashion with AppleScript.

Select the word.

Hit a keyboard shortcut.

Popup a dialog.

Enter a string.

Hit the OK button.

All instances in the document are updated.

Selection is restored to the original instance.

This is most easily done on a whole word basis, but strings that begin words, end words, and are within words could be managed with some clever scripting.

Here is a very basic example.

I've used word boundaries in the regex, so currently this will only work on a string that has clear boundaries at beginning and end.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Auth: Christopher Stone

# dCre: 2016/07/13 13:30

# dMod: 2016/07/13 14:06 

# Appl: BBEdit

# Task: Refactor selection in front BBEdit text document.

# Libs: None

# Osax: None

# Tags: @Applescript, @Script, @BBEdit, @Refactor, @Text

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

tell application "BBEdit"

   tell front text document's window

      set selectedText to contents of selection

      set regexPattern to "\\b" & selectedText & "\\b"

      set replacementWord to getReplacementWord(selectedText) of me

      replace regexPattern using replacementWord options {search mode:grep, case sensitive:false, starting at top:true}

   end tell

end tell

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--» HANDLERS

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

on getReplacementWord(defaultText)

   set replacementWord to text returned of (display dialog "Type your replacement text:" default answer defaultText with title "Refactor")

   return replacementWord

end getReplacementWord

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Best Regards,

Chris

[Fletcher Sandbeck]

The menu shortcuts make replacements like this pretty fast. Select the text you need to change, Command-E to set the find pattern, replace the text and re-select it, Command-Option-E to set the replacement pattern, and then Command-Option-= to replace all. I think those are all standard shortcuts.

I usually modify this slightly. I have Command-Option-F set to Replace and Find Next so I usually cycle through the document that way rather than doing a Replace All, glancing at the replacements as I go to make sure they are all valid. If any aren't, I use Command-G to skip over them.

[fletcher]

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[Gustave Stresen-Reuter]

Thanks. I've been resorting to the Find and Replace myself but when programming, it would be so nice to just have it all happen at the same time so I don't stupidly miss one.

I too smell a new feature coming (hey, we can already underline all instances of a word) but who knows… There may be higher priorities!

Ted

[Neil Faiman]

> On Jul 13, 2016, at 4:31 PM, Fletcher Sandbeck <flet...@cumuli.com> wrote:
>
> The menu shortcuts make replacements like this pretty fast. Select the text you need to change, Command-E to set the find pattern, replace the text and re-select it, Command-Option-E to set the replacement pattern, and then Command-Option-= to replace all. I think those are all standard shortcuts.

But note that this replaces all occurrences of the STRING, not all occurrences of the SYMBOL. If the symbol you want to modify is a substring of some other symbol, or if you use symbols with the same name in different places in a file, you get an unwelcome surprise.

Neil Faiman

[Barbara Snyder]

Select, Copy, Find, Paste, Replace all - Selected text only (if appropriate)

If I understand your question correctly, that's how I do it.