Sublime Text 3 Macro to add quotes and a comma to every line?

Question

Let's say I have a file open. Each line in the file is an ID number. One of the tasks I do frequently is to convert each line into a quoted ID number with a comma at the end of each line. Currently I do this using Find and Replace with RegEx.

Example:

Find: ^(.*)$
Replace: "$1",

But if I could program a Macro to do it that for me, then I wouldn't have to use Find and Replace every time.

Something like: Step one: put a cursor on every line Step two: move the cursor to the front of every line Step three: insert character a double quotation mark Step four: move the cursor to the end of every line Step five: insert character a double quotation mark Step six: insert character comma

Answer 1

Here is the macro you are looking for,

[
    { "command": "select_all", },
    { "command": "split_selection_into_lines" },
    { "command": "insert_snippet", "args": { "contents": "\"${0:$SELECTION}\"" }, },
    { "command": "move_to", "args": { "to": "eol", "extend": false }, },
    { "command": "insert", "args": { "characters": ","}, }
]

This is what the macro does:

1. It selects all the text.
2. It creates a selection for each line, placing a cursor at the end of each line.
3. It wraps the text of each line in double quotes.
4. It moves the cursors to the end of each line.
5. It inserts a comma (,) at the end of each line.

The macro file must be saved with a .sublime-macro extension in your User directory (if you're not sure where that is select Preferences --> Browse Packages... from the menu). The file can be named anything you like but descriptive names are usually best since they prevent later confusion, e.g. QuoteAndComma.sublime-macro.

You can run the macro from the Sublime Text menu Tools --> Macros --> User --> QuoteAndComma, but here is a key binding to make it easier to use.

{
    "keys": ["ctrl+shift+alt+5"],
    "command": "run_macro_file",
    "args": {"file": "res://Packages/User/QuoteAndComma.sublime-macro"},
},

Add this to your user key bindings file changing the keys to whatever you want. Note that the example key binding assumes that you saved the aforementioned macro file as QuoteAndComma.sublime-macro in the User directory.

When this has all been done, when you press the key binding, the text on each line is double quoted and a trailing comma is then added.

As an additional note, you can also use the following series of default key bindings to perform the same actions that are in the macro file.

1. ctrl + a -> Selects all text.
2. ctrl + shift + l -> Split selection to lines.
3. shift + " -> To double quote.
4. End -> To move each selection to eol.
5. , -> The final trailing comma.

Finally, just in case you were replacing one by one before, in the find/replace panel you can select Replace All to perform all the replacements in one go.