Quick Add Next

[Gummill]

In Sublime text multiple occurrences of a word can be selected by simply pressing Ctrl+D. This feature is called Quick Add Next: https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/multiple_selection_with_the_keyboard.html

The following script implements the same basic functionality in PythonScript:

def ensureNormalSelection():
    """
    Make sure that currentPosition is at the end of the selection.
    If the cursor is at the left end of a selection, then that specific
    selection will be the first result of the findText command. We avoid that
    by explicitly moving the cursor to the end of the selection.
    """
    anchor = editor.getSelectionStart()
    end = editor.getSelectionEnd()
    editor.setSelectionEnd(end)
    editor.setSelectionStart(anchor)

currentlySelectedText = editor.getSelText()
if not currentlySelectedText:
    pass
else:
    # Find the string to search for. We can't use getSelText since we may have
    # several instances of the string selected, resulting in textToSearchFor
    # being, e.g., 'abcabcabc' rather than simply 'abc'.
    mainSelNumber = editor.getMainSelection()
    selStart = editor.getSelectionNAnchor(mainSelNumber)
    selEnd = editor.getSelectionNCaret(mainSelNumber)
    textToSearchFor = editor.getTextRange(selStart, selEnd)
    # Do the search.
    ensureNormalSelection()
    currentPosition = editor.getCurrentPos()
    fileLength = editor.getLength()
    try:
        (startPos, endPos) = editor.findText(0, currentPosition, fileLength,
                                             textToSearchFor)
    except:
        (startPos, endPos) = editor.findText(0, 0, currentPosition,
                                             textToSearchFor)
    editor.addSelection(startPos, endPos)

Minimal working example:
In a text file

abc abc

select the first 'abc' and run the script. This should cause the second 'abc' to also be selected.

To remove the latest added selection, run

editor.dropSelectionN(editor.getMainSelection())