{"id":1715,"date":"2012-12-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.sidekick.be\/itenium\/notepad-plus-plus-php-var-selection\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T13:31:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T12:31:47","slug":"notepad-plus-plus-php-var-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.sidekick.be\/itenium\/blog\/dev-setup\/notepad-plus-plus-php-var-selection\/","title":{"rendered":"Notepad++ double click PHP variable including the $ sign"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 id=\"old-broken-and-obsolete-autohotkey-solution\">Old, Broken and Obsolete Autohotkey solution<\/h1>\n<p>My previous editor Code-Genie already selected the $ sign along with the variable name when I double clicked somewhere on a word. When I upgraded to Notepad++, I was confused this was no longer happening as it seemed pretty obvious to me that when writing PHP almost always you\u2019d want the $ also. Apparently not that many agree, but I want that behavior so I checked the StackOverflow answers. The follow up answer provides a workaround using a Notepad++ macro and an Autohotkey script. The problem is that it requires you to use a special keybinding (alt+click) to trigger the macro. I still want my Code-Genie feeling back.<\/p>\n<p>With Notepad++ seemingly letting us down, I was sure it was Autohotkey to the rescue:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"language-autohotkey\">; Also select the $ when control clicking a word in a Notepad++ PHP file\n^LButton::\nWinGetActiveTitle, windowTitle\nisNotepadPhpFile := RegExMatch(windowTitle, \".[pP][hH][pP] - Notepad++$\")\nif isNotepadPhpFile\n{\n    Send, ^{Click}\n    return\n}\n \n; Selects the word the cursor is on plus an extra character on the left\nClick\nSend, ^{LEFT}{LEFT}+{RIGHT}^+{RIGHT}\nreturn\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>Wait\u2026 You promised a double-click solution and now post code bound to control+click, what\u2019s going on here? Well, I cracked out some code \u2013 literally having to lookup every keyword along the way \u2013 until I got to the point where I decided to continue the fight another day. I got to a solution with the following problems:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The cursor is jumping around because I\u2019m sending keystrokes.<\/li>\n<li>Clicking twice in succession but on different lines is interpreted as a double click.<\/li>\n<li>You have to wait a little between double and triple clicks (select entire line) for this to work correctly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I will update the code to fix these issues and revisit this post then. Here is the already \u201csomewhat-workable code\u201d \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"language-autohotkey\">; Also select the $ when double clicking a word in a Notepad++ PHP file\n~LButton::\nWinGetActiveTitle, windowTitle\nisNotepadPhpFile := RegExMatch(windowTitle, \".[pP][hH][pP] - Notepad++$\")\nif !isNotepadPhpFile\n    return\n \nif (A_PriorHotkey &lt;&gt; \"~LButton\" or A_TimeSincePriorHotkey &gt; 300)\n{\n    ; Too much time between clicks, so this isn't a double-click.\n    ; Flawed: If you click twice in succession on different rows\n    ;         it thinks it's a double click while really it is not.\n    KeyWait, LButton\n    return\n}\n \n; 1: Less jumping doesn't preserve the cursor position\n; 0: More jumping. You actually see the cursor moving (even more:)\nsettingLeastCursorJumping = 1\n \n; Selects the word the cursor is on plus an extra character on the left\nIfEqual settingLeastCursorJumping, 1, Send, ^{LEFT}{LEFT}+{RIGHT}^+{RIGHT}\nIfNotEqual settingLeastCursorJumping, 1, Send, {RIGHT}^+{LEFT}+{LEFT}\n \n; Resets the cursor position if the first character isn't $\nvar := GetCurrentlySelectedText()\nif (InStr(var, \"$\") = 0)\n{\n    IfEqual settingLeastCursorJumping, 1, Send, {RIGHT}^{LEFT}^+{RIGHT}\n    IfNotEqual settingLeastCursorJumping, 1, Send, +{RIGHT}\n}\nreturn\n \n; Capture and return selected text to clipboard\n; Restore clipboard's value after CTRL+C\nGetCurrentlySelectedText()\n{\n    oldClipboard = %Clipboard%\n    Send, ^c\n    selectedText = %Clipboard%\n    Clipboard = %oldClipboard%\n    return selectedText\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<h1>Updates<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li> 21 June 2019: Built-into Notepad++ for some time now<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Built-in in Notepad++ since 2016:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Settings &gt; Preferences &gt; Delimiter &gt; Add you character as part of word &gt; $<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dev-setup"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Notepad++ double click PHP variable including the $ sign - Itenium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Notepad++ double click PHP variable including the $ sign - Itenium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Built-in in Notepad++ since 2016:Settings &gt; 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