Selecting a substring, not the whole log line

[abrothman-vacatia]

I frequently need to select only a single word of the log line - an ID to look up in the database. Right now, I can only select and copy the whole line, so I need to paste it into a text editor to get the substring I need.

It would be great if a key modifier or double-click would allow the user to select a substring on the line.

[mark-moran-wne]

Regex capture groups could be used as an ad-hoc syntax highlighting/scraping solution.

Ex: Process is 1% complete (1/250)
Regex: Process is (.*)% complete \((.*)/(.*)\)

Result: Process is 1% complete (1/250)

Colors could be assigned to each capture group, or only those values displayed in a table format.

I wonder if it could be done as a plugin?

[abrothman-vacatia]

That really doesn't suit the use case. What I'm grabbing is different every time.

I just want to be able to do this (video link):

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/em6mejy3ck7s3xkuhxx5h/notepad-_nHzJSU3Cdw.mp4?rlkey=yercrnzc26gqfgn2olxtgf6xg&dl=0

[mark-moran-wne]

ERROR: (.*) is not allowed.*$

[mark-moran-wne]

I guess I'm thinking more about capturing certain items and you just want to select text adhoc.

[abrothman-vacatia]

Yes. I understand that writing a regex every time I want to copy text out of the log is a workaround. However, it's not a USEFUL workaround. It turns a one-second task into a - best case - 20 second task.

If I were opening the log file in Notepad, the flower of 1983 technology, I could select the text. Am I crazy for wanting the same obvious functionality for a log viewer in 2024?