SQL Column Highlighter for Notepad++

A Notepad++ plugin: in a SQL INSERT statement, click a column name to highlight its value(s), and double-click a value to highlight its column.

INSERT INTO users (id, name, email) VALUES (1, 'Alice', 'a@example.com');
--               ^^^^  click "name"  ->  'Alice' is highlighted amber
--  double-click 'a@example.com'  ->  "email" is highlighted blue

• Click a column name → the corresponding value is highlighted amber (for multi-row VALUES, the same column in every row is highlighted); the column itself is blue.
• Double-click a value → the corresponding column is highlighted blue.
• Double-click a column name → same as clicking: its value(s) are highlighted.
• Highlights are cleared automatically when the caret moves away or you switch files.
• Can be toggled from the plugin menu (Plugins → SQL Column Highlighter).

The parser is quote/comment aware: commas inside strings ('x, y'), escaped quotes ('it''s'), nested function calls (UPPER('a')), multi-line statements, multi-row VALUES, ` / " " / [ ] quoted identifiers, and -- / # / /* */ comments are all handled.

Install

Via Plugins Admin (once listed): Plugins → Plugins Admin…, search SQL Column Highlighter, install.

Manual: download SqlColumnHighlighter-<version>-x64.zip (or -x86.zip) from Releases, extract SqlColumnHighlighter.dll into %PROGRAMFILES%\Notepad++\plugins\SqlColumnHighlighter\ (create the folder), restart Notepad++.

Build

No .vcxproj needed — build.ps1 invokes cl.exe/link.exe directly.

Locally (in an "x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS"):

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File build.ps1 -Arch x64

CI: pushing a tag like v1.0.0 triggers .github/workflows/build-and-release.yml, which builds x86 + x64 on windows-latest, zips each DLL (DLL at zip root, as Plugins Admin requires), and creates a GitHub Release with SHA-256 checksums.

Project layout

src/
  PluginMain.cpp   plugin entry: menus, notification dispatch
  Highlighter.cpp  INSERT parsing + indicator highlighting
  Highlighter.h
  NppApi.h         minimal Notepad++ plugin interface
                   (values verified against the official Notepad_plus_msgs.h)
  Scintilla.h      minimal Scintilla constants used
  version.rc       DLL version resource (1.0.0.0)
build.ps1          local build script (also compiles & runs the tests below)
tests/
  test_highlighter.cpp  end-to-end tests: fake Scintilla drives analyse/highlight
  test_load.cpp         DLL load smoke test (exports, getName, getFuncsArray)
  fake_sci.h            redirects ::SendMessage to the fake (via cl /FI)
.github/workflows/build-and-release.yml   CI: build x86/x64, test, zip, release

Submitting to Plugins Admin (nppPluginList)

1. Tag a release (git tag v1.0.0 && git push origin v1.0.0); CI publishes the zips.
2. Take the SHA-256 of each zip (printed in the workflow log and SHA256SUMS.txt).
3. Fork notepad-plus-plus/nppPluginList and add an entry to src/pl.x64.json / src/pl.x86.json:

{
    "folder-name": "SqlColumnHighlighter",
    "display-name": "SQL Column Highlighter",
    "version": "1.0.0.0",
    "id": "<sha256 of the zip>",
    "repository": "https://github.com/zhgao/npp-sql-column-highlighter/releases/download/v1.0.0/SqlColumnHighlighter-v1.0.0-x64.zip",
    "description": "Click a column name to highlight its value(s); double-click a value to highlight its column, in SQL INSERT statements.",
    "author": "zhgao",
    "homepage": "https://github.com/zhgao/npp-sql-column-highlighter"
}

4. Open a PR against notepad-plus-plus/nppPluginList. After it is merged, the plugin appears in Plugins Admin with the next Notepad++ release.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.