Description of the Issue

In some cases, a rectangular selection, followed with an ascending sort, does not sort lines of that selection correctly !

Steps to Reproduce the Issue

• • In a new tab, insert the INPUT text, below :

    one
    two
    three
    four
    five
    six
    seven
    eight
    nine
    ten

• Move the caret between the four leading space chars and the word three

• Hit simustaneously the Alt and Shift keys and, at the same time, hit five times on the Down arrow key

=> The indication Sel: 6x0 should appear in the Status bar

• Now, hit, for instance, the = sign

=> A = sign is inserted in front of the lines three to eight

• Select the Edit > Line Operations > Sort lines Lexicographically Ascending

Expected Behavior

The alphabetic sort should work !

Actual Behavior

Nothing happens :-((

• Now, hit the Left arrow key, once, to cancel the rectangular selection

• Hit simustaneously the Alt and Shift keys and, at the same time, hit five times on the Down arrow key

=> Again, a rectangular selection ( Sel: 6x0 ), after the = sign, is created

• Select, again, the Edit > Line Operations > Sort lines Lexicographically Ascending

=> This time, the expected behavior occurs and we get this OUTPUT text :

    one
    two
    =eight
    =five
    =four
    =seven
    =six
    =three
    nine
    ten

As you can see, the lines of the selection, with an = sign, have been correctly sorted, in an ascending order !

Debug Information

Notepad++ v8.4.6   (64-bit)
Build time : Sep 25 2022 - 19:51:39
Path : E:\846_x64\notepad++.exe
Command Line : 
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : ON
Cloud Config : OFF
OS Name : Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) 
OS Version : 21H2
OS Build : 19044.2075
Current ANSI codepage : 1252
Plugins : 
    mimeTools (2.8)
    NppConverter (4.4)
    NppExport (0.4)
    PythonScript (2)
    ComparePlus (1)
    BetterMultiSelection (1.5)

IMPORTANT note :

• Although, the BetterMultiSelection plugin is present in my local configuration, I disabled the plugin for the tests above ! And, anyway, the results are similar when the BetterMultiSelection plugin is enabled

Refer for similar tests in the post :

https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/80310

And some replies to my initial post, below :

https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/80313

https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/80325

As well as a possible solution in :

https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/80336

Best Regards,

guy038