notepad-plus-plus
Another Find bug
Description of the Issue
When I search for text (ctrl+f) in my currently open document, it fails to find text (part of word) on small snippets of text. ie. saptstfsx can't be found when it is literally part of multiple lines such as saptstfsx1:, saptstfsx:, mysaptstfsx: "somevalue", etc.
Searching up and down document with tick box. Alt tab out to another program to do the same thing and it works on the same file. Accidentally alt tab back into notepad to do a similar search and it starts working.
Anecdotally, I see a number of other requests around this search functionality which I have never had to bug anyone about before, and it looks like there might be a central theme in that its a bit broke all of a sudden?
Steps to Reproduce the Issue
- open documents in notepad and determine a substring within a string to find
- My workflow requires moving between google chrome and notepad to code, but eventually I have a requirement to find a string of text within the document that is in the middle of a line that is not space delimitated (ie search within lines like " myabc123:" with criteria "abc123". Note that while I might have multiple documents open, I have the document with the string I'm looking for selected
- after confirming it didn't find it, alt tab out and then alt tab in again and hopefully pressing "find" again will result in a hit.
Expected Behavior
it finds the value I'm searching for in the document and tells me how many hits I got for it
Actual Behavior
Makes angry windows chime sound and says no hits for obvious multiple strings in document. Can find it later without modifying the find field, just pressing the button.
Debug Information
Notepad++ v8.4.4 (64-bit) Build time : Jul 15 2022 - 17:54:42 Path : C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe Command Line : "C:\temp\xxx\xx-xxx-xxxxxx\ansible\xxxxx\xxxx\resources\xxxxx\xxxxx.yml" Admin mode : OFF Local Conf mode : OFF Cloud Config : OFF OS Name : Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) OS Version : 21H1 OS Build : 19043.1889 Current ANSI codepage : 1252 Plugins : mimeTools (2.8) NppConverter (4.4) NppExport (0.4)
You left Debug Information blank so no one can hope to even try to reproduce your problem.
find a string of text within the document that is in the middle of a line that is not space delimitated (ie search within lines like " myabc123:" with criteria "abc123".
The main aspect of your problem sounds like you have the Match whole word only checkbox ticked when you want it unticked. The moral of that story is to learn how to do searching with Notepad++.
after confirming it didn't find it, alt tab out and then alt tab in again and hopefully pressing "find" again will result in a hit
This part is stranger and probably needs further exploration. But let's get your reaction to the "whole word only" thing first.
I see a number of other requests around this search functionality which I have never had to bug anyone about before, and it looks like there might be a central theme in that its a bit broke all of a sudden?
Can you cite these "other requests"?
The following are from the last month, and without looking too deep into them, I suspect they may be related. They all look like they are searching for things but getting 0 hits for data in their docs.
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues/12023
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues/11995
I don't believe this is PEBKAC since I had a number of people looking at my screen, my search criteria and the document directly under it showing multiple strings containing my substring, but I might just be dumb :)
In terms of debug, I'm not sure what I can provide @alankilborn since there isn't an error, just a UI/search result inconsistency with whats on the screen.
12023 11995
Citing those other requests originally would have been a good idea, as those issues are known and confirmed. :-)
If you can provide your exact data in a file attachment here, it can be confirmed that your case is the same as those others. Of course it is realized that not all data can be shared, in which case it becomes more on you to study deeper those other issues and confirm that yours is the same (well, only if you want to go to that effort).
@alankilborn , and the only box that is ticked in the find dialog is sometimes "backward direction". Again, I don't believe this is pebkac. "match whole word only, match whole case, wrap around are not selected", however if they should be, let me know because that would change things). However, I appreciate your support on this. I've been using this product since about 2005, which is why I'm still coding in it :)
In terms of debug, I'm not sure what I can provide
The issue template had all you needed to understand and provide this.
Go to the ? menu and choose:
Then click here:
and then paste your clipboard into a posting here.
FYI. That debug output is horribly revealing as it exposes the open file from the filesystem which may be considered sensitive. Please update that. Very bad instructions.
That debug output is horribly revealing as it exposes the open file from the filesystem which may be considered sensitive
Well, sometimes that particular bit of info is needed to solve problems. If it isn't relevant, users submitting issues can always do what you did and censor it.
I'm sensing that if even your filename is something you consider sensitive, there isn't much hope for getting some data which reproduces your exact problem.
Very bad instructions
I have reviewed the instructions in the issue template and they seem fine to me -- what makes them "very bad" and how would you make them better?
Existing instructions for easy reference:
That image you posted at the bottom. If it could highlight in bold red "Make sure you scrub sensitive file system data from the debug log, since it doesn't ask that and it will be in there unless you review it", that would be great!