How do I automatically trim trailing whitespace with Notepad++?

Question

I don't want to delete the empty lines completely, but I want to remove the trailing tabs and whitespaces in them. Eclipse usually does it (through a preference setting) when we save the file.

For example, the file before saving ($ = end of line):

def shuffle(list):$
    import random $
    $
    random.shuffle(list)
    $
$

... and when I save this in the editor, Eclipse does the following:

def shuffle(list):$
    import random$
$
    random.shuffle(list)
$
$

How can I automatically trim trailing whitespace with Notepad++?

Answer 1

You should be able to do a regular expression find/replace in Notepad++ using a pattern like \s+$.

There are also a few options under menu Edit -> Blank Operations that may fit your needs.

Under the "Macro" menu there's an option for "Trim trailing and save". If you need to do a regular expression it may be possible to create a macro however I've never tried them.

Answer 2

Alt+Shift+S does what you want. In fact it also saves the file.

Update

As 10basetom noted, you can assign a different shortcut to this macro. You can control your shortcuts under Settings > Shortcut Mapper > [Macros].

Answer 3

I changed the shortcuts to find a solution to this. I removed the save shortcut (shortcut mapper -> main menu -> save) and mapped Ctrl+S to the "Trim Trailing and Save" macro (shortcut mapper -> macros -> trim trailing and save). This way the macro replaces the save functionality and there's no need to remember the Alt+Shift+S shortcut.

Answer 4

Plugins > Plugin Manager > Show Plugin Manager
Under the Available tab, select EditorConfig and click [Install]

Add an .editorconfig file to the folder (name it .editorconfig. to avoid Windows error "You must type a filename" - the last dot will be removed)

# trims trailing whitespace for all files; filter like [*.{json,xml}]
[*]
trim_trailing_whitespace = true

EditorConfig can also specify encoding, indent and newline character(s), etc.

Answer 5

The existing answers look old.

Try below path:

Notepad++ > Edit (menu) > Blank Operations > Trim Trailing Space

Answer 6

Another way -

1. Edit > Blank Operations > Remove Unnecessary Blank and EOL
2. Plugin > XML Tools > Pretty print (XML only - with line breaks)

'XML Tools’ is a plugin that we can install for notepad++

Answer 7

Alt+Shift+S is the default shortcut for this. It's in the menu bar as Macro -> Trim Trailing and save. You can rebind this under Settings -> Shortcut Mapper -> [Macros].

Building on kon psych's answer, if you want to automatically trim whitespace any time you save, you can set this to replace the default Ctrl+S behavior. Just remember to change or remove the original save shortcut to prevent conflicts.

Answer 8

These are the precise steps to redirect the standard "Save" shortcut Ctrl+S to do instead "Trim Trailing and Save"

• Settings->Shortcut Mapper...
• Main Menu tab, double click on "Save", change S to None
• Macros tab, double click on "Trim Trailing Space and Save", change to Ctrl+S

The Macros shortcut can also be modified from Macro->Modify Shortcut/Delete Macro...

Answer 9

Ctrl + F -> Switch to tab Replace ->

Find what: \t\r

Replace with: \r

Make sure Extended search mode is on, then replace all.

If you want to save as well, johanno has the correct solution. Macro -> Trim Trailing and Save works as specified.

Answer 10

In order to preserve the existing menu commands, map (previously unassigned) Ctrl+T to trim trailing spaces. Then, do Ctrl+T and Ctrl+S together.

This lets you make a small change to a file without confusing text comparison utilities and source control programs by changing (potentially) hundreds of lines.