Notepad++, is a great open source editor similar to EditPlus and UltraEdit. One of the features that I really appreciated in EditPlus, was the capability to select a column of data. I checked if NotePad++ has a similar feature and found the following hotkey that can be used to do this..
“Alt + Left Mouse Click” puts you in Column Mode Select
For a complete list of hotkeys that can be used with Notepad++, check out this link
Thank you, this was very helpful
Using only the keyboad you can use the shift+alt key to select columns using the arrow keys.
alex.
Thx for the tip Alex.
Thanks for blogging this, Alex.
thanks a million!!!!!
thanx man !!!! You did my day !!!!!
Thanks, that’s what I was lookin for 🙂
Thanks for the tip.
Excelent. I start use notepadd++ now, because old version don’t like. But this is very much better. Thanks and take care.
Greetings.
Thanks a lot. It’s really helpful.
Greeeat !!!
I had to migrate from UltraEdit to NotePad++ and was missing this feature so badly..
thanks a lots.
Great, thanks. Just found out one more helpful thing:
To select columns without using the mouse use ALT+SHIFT and the cursor keys
Thx JS.. Very helpful 🙂
Thnanks .. it is vary helpful
Awesome tip! Very very useful!
I am not able to select a hudge column without having to drag the mouse down for a very long time. It does not handle the SHIFT + click selection…
Cahine – Did you try ALT + SHIFT?
Hi
I want tp publish notepad++ to some programmers in my company. Do you know if we can copy multiple lines in column editor mode?
We are in the need of copying text from a terminal program, and want/need to use column editor by copying several lines into column edit mode.
Is it possible in notepad++?
regards
Jerry
Yes you can select multiple rows in a column.
Thanks man!^^
Mandalayoga.org Thanks for that awesome posting. It saved MUCH time 🙂
Thanks a lot!!
Thanks for the super quick help.
Use Alt+Shift+Left mouse click for block (column) selection
I’m cramming for a project and googled this in a desperate attempt to isolate a set of datapoints from a program output… you totally saved my day!!
thank u…………….good tip!!!!
Thanks a lot dude, but still once the column selection is on, how will you select entire column. I can’t select manually as my data runs till 80000.
Great tips! Thanks every one
The tip was useful. Thanks!
Thank you a lot!!! This tip is really useful.
can we create column in a notepad++ data file which is uncommon about column as well as line but one thing some datas are similar in each line
like below details but i need the below datas in a particular column wise.
Update Scintilla from 2.21 to 2.25
2. New feature: Non-greedy regular expression (Scintilla).
3. Add Copy/Cut/Paste Binary Content feature.
4. Add “paste HTML content” and “paste RTF content” commands.
5. Fix the inverse of title and message for some MessageBox.
6. Add “Remove Unmarked Lines” command.
7. Add “Column Mode Tip” to notice users the usage of column mode in Notepad++.
8. Make stream comment of php/javascript foldable.
Tamesh – I didn’t understand your question. Can you give it another try?
I’m looking to delete a single column from an 8k plus file. If I select shift + alt then arrow over I can get one column, how can I select this entire column for all the records?
Jett – You can hit the end key and you will get to the bottom of the file. Am assuming that is what you are looking for.
– V
Thanks bro, nice job
Thanks! I miss UE but this is nice!
Contrary to what vinlay said
I cannot select an entire column to the end of file.
End goes to end of line
And Ctrl End doesn’t work when column selecting.
I also hate that the cursor doesn’t go back to the beginning position after typing and changing lines, ala textpad.
making multi line edits a pain.
Shift+Alt+PgDn to select the entire column on page.
You have to hit pgDn twice.
Hope that helps!
very nice article, I have been trying to look for this. Thanks!
OK, so as I understand – there is no way to DELETE/SELECT entire column on the VERY large files. Say I have 100 000 lines text file and I want to delete first 3 columns…
tadzio – Unfortunately, I don’t think notepad++ has this feature. The most you can do is use alt+shift+select data+pagedown to select data in a page(display). For doing tasks like the ones you describe, I would recommend using perl/python (or any scripting language). If you can give a sample of your file, I can help you write a simple perl script to delete the data.
Vinay – thank you for the reply. I managed by using Excel finally – easy to cut columns during the import :). Too bad N+ does not have this feature – even re-running macros was really slow… I guess this could be easily solved by the right plugin – maybe one day when I have time 🙂
I found a fairly easy solution to this. Set your curser at the start of the column (don’t select anything). Scroll down with the slider bar (your curser remains at the top). Press alt+shift and click on the right side of the last entry in your column. This selects the entire column.
Grazie Mille!!
I was about to give up with frustration. Thanks.
Thanks!!!
Thanks a lot. it is too useful for me.
Thanks!!!!!!
It is very helpful. I have been trying to look for this.
Thank You… It is too useful
4 years later and still a gem of a tip — thanks!!
Thank you
It turns out that, with a bit of effort, it is possible to select entire columns in Notepad++, Ã la tadzio’s predicament.
To do so, begin by placing the text cursor at the top of the left-most column to be deleted. Scroll to the bottom of the file, and while holding Shift+Alt select the bottom of the right-most column to be deleted. The entirety of all columns in between these two points will be selected.
Next thing I’ll do is get up and throw UE out of my window…
Thank you.
This is really a big solution to me.
Yes, finally i know how to select column in notepad++. It’s time to say good bye to ultr*ed*t.
How can I sort by a column (but not the first one)?
I don’t think you can do it in notepad++. You will probably need to do this with a scripting language like python or perl.
This is column sort plugin I use.
http://william.famille-blum.org/blog/index.php?m=01&y=11&d=23&entry=entry110123-113226
NppColumnSort.zip
thanks ! ahhhhhhhhhhh
Great !! Thanks.
FANKS
i have a two huge data text files (130000) lines each. I need to replace a column selection from one file to another (copy from one file and replace the same in another). Kindly assist.
Kumar – can you provide the format of the text file?
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