Macros don't record Find/Replace?

[natebeaty]

I just today realized macros don’t record Find/Replace actions, which I find pretty shocking at this stage in ST2. I guess the fact that it took well over a year of intense daily use before realizing this runs contrary to my feeling it’s a vital feature.

Painfully, I had to fire up Textmate 1 for the first time since … Apr 2011? to record a macro of several regex find/replace actions to clean up a bunch of old crappy HTML source.

While the RegReplace plugin seems like it could do this, it was overkill for a temporary series of somewhat complex actions I wanted to repeat on a few files – exactly what macros are ideal for.

I upvoted this User Echo post, but I was wondering if adding Find/Replace to macro recording is on the roadmap at all?

[richardcd73]

For what it’s worth, I’ll add that I find this pretty shocking, too. I’m a new Sublime user, and I noticed it within a week. This the ability to do searches and cut/paste commands in macros was one of my favorite ways to do simple text processing in Emacs. It seems like an obvious thing to get in Sublime. I’m still trying to figure out if there is a way to make this work.

[asfarley]

Agreed, I have just purchased Sublime and it’s very surprising that it is unable to record macros for Find/Replace. This is critical for my work, I might have to go back to Notepad++.

[redwards]

I just purchased a license and am now disappointed that such a simple and essential feature is not available.

[c41]

i believe its possible to set up commands instead of macros with this package

github.com/facelessuser/RegReplace

having said that - i’m a newb and cant get it to work, so if anyone knows of a step by step guide, or would care to jot them down, i’m all ears

Pete

[qgates]

Agree. Macros should be able to record everything. It allows for powerful iterative batch manipulation. Macros, regexes and repeat get very powerful when find/replace can be used in this way.

[azcn2503]

I just registered because I felt the need to +1 this as a feature request!
The ability to record replace in the macro is extremely useful, especially for those repetitive tasks we are often faced with. Being able to record a regular expression replacement is an excellent feature and one that I would use multiple times every day.

[origin008]

This is really a big problem.

[MarkCheshire]

I just had this very problem today. Unfortunately I assumed that it would work and recorded a really complex sequence of search and replace actions. Big disappointment to find that it does not work. It would be great to get this added. In the meantime I need to do the search and replace across multiple files in the CLI shell.

[tom3x]

I purchased a license lask week and i am disappointed so much by this ‘feature’. I agree that macros should be able to record everything. Many editors or IDE can do this. I hope it will be implemented soon…

[raindropz]

Macros are very helpful when you have to run a large formulae on a daily basis. I used to work with a technical support team where we had to depend excel. To pull out the records, we always depend on Macros, even though it has some limits.

[jonross]

I agree, extremely disappointing. This is the only editor I’ve seen that has macros where macros don’t record searches.

Just take the simple and common task of deleting everything in a line past the first comma. Easy in any other editor… Impossible in sublime.

I’m upset that I bought a licence.

[aprogrammer]

I’d just like to add my voice here.

I like everything else about ST, the look, the feel, the use of jsonish config and python everywhere, however I noticed this not after a year, but after an hour or two.

I keep it installed because I want to like it and use this marvellous editor, but so far every Sublime Text switch in the last few years I guess? has been ended by having to switch to something else for heavy lifting. I want to invest time and money into using it and recommend it, indeed if this were a less obstructive niggle I would get work done in it anyway and possibly fix it myself in my spare time, but if I have to have emacs or textmate on hand to get work done, it’s not a software I can properly switch to.

Anyway, I guess other people’s mileage may vary and I’m only one person, but this issue is a big deal to me.

[niks]

found this while trying to work around lack of automatic regex escape in find; nothing more disappointing than disappointment during attempted workaround

[qgates]

Gentle bump. Like so many I’d dearly love to see Macros get some love by recording everything, notably find & replace.

Pretty pls!

[blizzrdof77]

Bump! Even Notepad ++ has regex macro support.

[seanmcbride]

As of June 12, 2016, Sublime Text macros still can’t handle find/replace? Is anyone home?

[qgates]

This is also still high on my list of requests for Sublime. Classic editors like VIM, Brief/Crisp and Emacs all support this, allowing for powerful compound workflows to be recorded/built in macros involving find & replace, cursor moves and edits, which can then be repeated within and across files. This, together with large file / long line handling, are the only reasons I still find myself routinely firing up another editor.

Vote this up by liking the OP at the top!

[natebeaty]

It’s 8:51AM now and still! Gasp!

… but honestly, I think the “shock” of the lack of this feature quickly diminished and caused me to just not use macros. They were more useful in Textmate 1 when we didn’t have multiple cursors and Emmet.

I also took the lack of the feature as an opportunity to hone my regex skills.

[kingkeith]

the lack of this feature quickly diminished and caused me to just not use macros.

I’ve been using ST for years and never had cause to use a macro…