Notepad++: Select/Copy Collapsed Folding Group

Question

Notepad++ current supports folding as described here:

http://npp-community.tuxfamily.org/documentation/notepad-user-manual/display/folding

However, I see no immediate way to actually select or copy the actual foldings that you can collapse. In essence, I would like to move this collapsed group to a different section of my document, and although a brute force scroll-down select is possible, it seems entirely inefficient since Notepad++ already identifies this group.

Is what I am asking possible? I saw some other posts related to folding, but they were not actually interested in saving the contents within the collapsed group.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Let me give you an example:

this is the first line of code  |
{ <-- this is your collapsed code
 | Last line of code

Select from the end of the first line of code (|) to the beginning of the last line of code (|). Copy and paste wherever you need.

Answer 2

First of all, what programming language are you using? I know that this can be done when writing C (and I'm assuming it's also true for other C-like languages), but it's definitely easier when using a certain coding style than for others.

Specifically, the program folds code such that the opening { is the last thing visible. If you write a block like this:

if (something) {
    ...
} else {
    ...
}

the entire block will be folded up at the same time and only the if line is visible. If you instead write a block like this:

if (something)
{
    ...
}
else
{
    ...
}

the if and else halves will fold up separately. The { for each half will be on a line by itself. If you select from the line containing the { character to the first character on the following like, you will effectively select everything within that collapsed section. It's possible to do this using the first code style I demonstrated, but it's a bit more difficult (you can copy the entire block, but not just one branch of the if).

Keyboard Shortcut Remember that when the cursor is on a curly brace, Ctrl+B will jump to the matching brace. If you hold the Shift key down when you do this, you will highlight everything in between the braces as well.