Notepad++ Run current line in Command Prompt

Question

There is a similar command that I use to open the currently selected word on command prompt:

cmd /D "%windir%/system32" /K ""$(CURRENT_WORD)""

Is there any command for opening the current line without selecting any text on that line manually?

Answer 1

Neither How to Run an external program from Notepad++ nor the documentation of the plugin NppExec mention a environment variable containing the current line.

Likewise, macros can only action Scintilla messages (list), search and replace recordings and some Notepad++ defined commands (undocumented?), so there's no way to achieve this with macros.

Aside from writing your own plugin, to only way I know how to do this is using an external program. An AutoHotkey script will do what you want.

AutoHotkey script:

^F5::
WinGetActiveTitle, Title
if RegExMatch(Title, "- Notepad\+\+$")
{
    SendPlay {Home}+{End}{F5}
    SendPlay cmd /D "%windir%/system32" /K "$(CURRENT_WORD)"
    SendPlay {Enter}
}
else
    SendPlay ^{F5}
return

What it does:

• If Notepad++ is the active window, the key combination Ctrl + F5 will select the current line and execute the external command

  cmd /D "%windir%/system32" /K ""$(CURRENT_WORD)""

  $(CURRENT_WORD) now contains the whole line, since it was selected. The only drawback is that you will lose the current cursor position, as the script will leave the current line selected.

• If Notepad++ is not the active window, the key combination Ctrl + F5 will behave normally.

How to use:

1. Download and install the latest version.

2. Save the above script as npp_runline.ahk, using your favorite text editor.

3. Double-click the file to run the script.

4. If you wish, copy the script (or a link to it) in the Startup folder.

How it works:

• ^F5:: specifies the used hotkey (Ctrl + F5).

• WinGetActiveTitle, Title stores the title of the active window in the variable Title.

• RegExMatch(Title, "- Notepad\+\+$") returns the position of the leftmost occurrence of the regular expression - Notepad\+\+$ (where \+ is a literal + and $ in the end of the string) in Title, or zero if there is no match.

  • If there is a match, the block follwing if... gets executed:

    • SendPlay {Home}+{End}{F5} simulates pressing Home and Shift + End (selecting the current line without leading whitespace) and then F5 (opening the Run... dialogue).

    • SendPlay cmd /D "%windir%/system32" /K "$(CURRENT_WORD)" enters just that in the Run... dialogue.

    • SendPlay {Enter} simulates pressing Enter (finalizing the Run... dialogue).

  • If there is no match, the block following else gets executed:

    • SendPlay ^{F5} simulates pressing Ctrl + F5 (fallback if we need the shortcut outside of Notepad++).

• return terminates the execution of the script at the current point.

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See also:

• AutoHotkey Documentation

• Regular-Expressions.info - Regex Tutorial, Examples and Reference - Regexp Patterns