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How to select subset of characters in many lines (column selection) in Eclipse/Android Studio? Ideally without plugins. Shift+Alt+A seems not to be working for me either.

In Notepad++ you can do it with Shift+Alt+(Arrows) or Alt+Left_Mouse (and drag to select)

Please see example below (Column selection I'm after):

Example
(source: softwareninjaneer.com)

Visual Studio and many other tools support it.

Thanks

Glorfindel
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Wojciech Jakubas
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8 Answers8

96

I use android studio. You can switch between selection mode by:
alt-shift-insert, or Edit -> Column selection mode.

source.

jezrael
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Joanne Chow
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    For Mac the key shortcut is: command-shift-8 See: https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/help/selecting-text-in-the-editor.html#d1404288e223 You can also hold alt and drag with left mouse button to do column select – Stan Kurdziel Feb 13 '15 at 22:42
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    Also worth noting, as I am having trouble remembering the non-similar combinations across multiple platforms: If you hold alt, then click and drag, you can column-select without being in column-select mode =) – Stan Kurdziel Feb 25 '15 at 18:11
36

Without any command you can get selection mode by using mouse drag with press Alt in Android Studio,

Mouse: Alt+MouseDrag

varotariya vajsi
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10

Now Alt+Left_Mouse works in Android Studio.

Bhargav Rao
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johanvs
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10

Android Studio column selection on the Mac Book you can use this Shortcut Mac :

Cmd + Shift + 8

source here

Kishan Donga
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3

To enter column selection mode, press alt-shift-insert.

To get the caret to occupy multiple lines, simply hold Shift and press the up or down arrow key. Then you can hold Shift and press the right or left key to select text horizontally like you usually would.

To exit column selection mode, press Esc.

Wilhelm
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1

Lots of previous answers, but this might be easier or more straightforward as compared to memorizing key shortcuts.

Just Right-click while the cursor is inside a file/class, then select/deselect 'column selection mode' from the list of options that appears (usually the fifth option on the list)

Oluwasegun Wahaab
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0

As per this thread: How do I enable the column selection mode in Eclipse?

or this one: Block selection in eclipse

Use: Alt+Shift+A

To switch between Column selection ans stream selection.

Block selection is available since Eclipse 3.5. You can toggle between standard and block selection by Alt+Shift+A (or press Ctrl+3, type "toggle block" and select Toggle Block Selection command).

Community
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Wojciech Jakubas
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0

the short cut key to select more column character: shift+up or down arrow (define more line) then shift +left or right arrow for select text

Delowar Sikder
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