Proper way to paste a link

[joeky888]

Environment data

PS version: 5.1.16299.251
PSReadline version: 1.2
os: 10.0.16299.15 (WinBuild.160101.0800)
PS file version: 10.0.16299.15 (WinBuild.160101.0800)

Steps to reproduce or exception report

Well this is not a bug but a question.

I have this binding in profile.ps1

Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+V -ScriptBlock {
    $clipboard = Get-Clipboard -Raw
    $clipboard = $clipboard -replace "&","``&"
    [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::Insert($clipboard)
 }

When I press Ctrl-V, it will paste the data from system clipboard and & character will be escaped.

It is convenient when the clipboard data is a web link like https://example.com?a=b&c=d .

However, if the clipboard data contains double quotes like this "https://example.com?a=b&c=d" , then there is no need to escape the & character.

How can I do a smart pasting. Thanks :)

[lzybkr]

You could use the PowerShell parser to tokenize the text so you know the extents to avoid replacing anything.

[joeky888]

This is a workaround:

Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+V,Ctrl+v -ScriptBlock {
    $clipboard = Get-Clipboard -Raw
    if ($clipboard -match '^http') {
      $clipboard = $clipboard -replace "&","``&"
      $clipboard = $clipboard -replace "\(","``("
      $clipboard = $clipboard -replace "\)","``)"
      $clipboard = $clipboard -replace ",","``,"
    }
    [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::Insert($clipboard)
  }

Works for most cases.

[joeky888]

Better solution:

Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Chord Ctrl+V,Ctrl+v -ScriptBlock {
    $clipboard = Get-Clipboard -Raw
    if ($clipboard -match '^\s*(http|ftp|magnet)' -or `
        (Test-Path $clipboard.Trim()) ) {
        $clipboard = $clipboard.Trim()
        $clipboard = "'${clipboard}'"
    }
    [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::Insert($clipboard)
  }