Visual Studio Macro to Paste similar to String.Format - visual-studio

Question

I'd like to be able to cut/copy a string like "<strong>{0}</strong>" for example.
I'd like to then select some code such as "Hello, World" and then invoke a macro which will result in "<strong>Hello, World</strong>".
How could you do this?
Update: WHY do I want to do this?
I could just make a macro or shortcut to add something specific like a <strong> tag to a selection. However, my idea to create any sort of "surround with" paste behavior on the fly.
Fairly often, I paste in a list of fields or properties. So from somewhere else I get
PersonID
FirstName
LastName
And just as an example, I know I want to set those up as
FieldName = dataRow("FieldName").Value
With my magic macro, I could select the following and press CTRL+C to get it in my clipboard:
{0} = dataRow("{0}").Value
Then all I have to do is go line by line and apply my magic paste.

Answer 1

Fun little project.
Option Strict Off
Option Explicit Off
Imports System
Imports EnvDTE
Imports EnvDTE80
Imports EnvDTE90
Imports System.Diagnostics
Public Module StringFormatModule
Private clipText As String
Public Property ClipboardText() As String
Get
RunThread(AddressOf GetClipboardText)
Return clipText
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
clipText = value
RunThread(AddressOf CopyToClipboard)
End Set
End Property
Private Function RunThread(ByVal fct As Threading.ThreadStart)
Dim thread As New Threading.Thread(fct)
thread.ApartmentState = Threading.ApartmentState.STA
thread.Start()
thread.Join()
End Function
Private Sub GetClipboardText()
clipText = My.Computer.Clipboard.GetText()
End Sub
Private Sub CopyToClipboard()
My.Computer.Clipboard.SetText(clipText)
End Sub
Sub FormatSelectedTextWithCopiedText()
Dim formatString As String
formatString = ClipboardText
Dim token As String
Dim selectedText As TextSelection
selectedText = DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection
token = selectedText.Text
selectedText.Text = String.Format(formatString, token)
End Sub
End Module
I borrowed the clipboard code from here.
This does work. I tested it on a text file, copy your formatstring into the clipboard (ctrl-c), highlight the text you want to format, and then run the macro (i just doubleclicked it from the macro explorer but you could make a keyboard shortcut).

Answer 2

Wouldn't it be better to define a macro that added the 'strong' tags around the selected text? Then you could assign it to Ctrl+B or whatever.
Having to select both chunks of text and invoking the macro twice seems too much like hard work to me.
(maybe you need to explain why you want to do this)

Answer 3

Instead of {0}, I use &. Assign macro to Ctrl+Q and you are all set!
' Wraps the current selection with the specified text. Use the & character as the anchor for the selected text.
Public Sub WrapSelection()
Dim selection As TextSelection = DirectCast(DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection, TextSelection)
DTE.UndoContext.Open("Wrap Selection")
Try
Dim sInput As String = InputBox("Wrap(&&, state)")
If Len(sInput) > 0 Then
Dim sContent As String = selection.Text
Dim iStart As Integer = InStr(sInput, "&") - 1
Dim iEnd As Integer = InStrRev(sInput, "&")
selection.Insert(sInput.Substring(0, iStart) + sContent + sInput.Substring(iEnd), vsInsertFlags.vsInsertFlagsContainNewText)
'selection.Insert(sInput.Substring(iEnd), vsInsertFlags.vsInsertFlagsInsertAtEnd)
End If
Catch ex As Exception
DTE.UndoContext.SetAborted()
MsgBox(ex.Message)
Finally
'If an error occured, then need to make sure that the undo context is cleaned up.
'Otherwise, the editor can be left in a perpetual undo context
DTE.UndoContext.Close()
End Try
End Sub