delete U+200B zero-width space characters using sublime text 3

Question

How can I make U+200B character or delete them in using sublime text 3. I found http://pastebin.com/ehWxNfMe but I am not sure how to use it

Answer 1

The following will work in Sublime Text 2 and 3. However, due to some issues discussed later, it has the potential to block the program when editing large files, and/or on slow computers. A Sublime Text 3-specific version using an asynchronous method is at the bottom.

Open a new file in Sublime, and set its syntax to Python. Paste the following into it:

---

import sublime_plugin

class ShowZeroWidthSpace(sublime_plugin.EventListener):
    def on_modified(self, view):
        spaces = []
        p = 0
        while True:
            s = view.find(u'\u200b', p + 1)
            if not s:
                break
            spaces.append(s)
            p = s.a
 
        if spaces:
            view.add_regions("zero-width", spaces, "invalid")
        else:
            view.erase_regions("zero-width")

---

Save the file in your Packages/User directory as show_zero_width_space.py, and it should start working immediately. Basically what it does is every time the current view is modified, it searches through it character by character looking for the zero-width space character, U+200B. If it finds one, it adds the location to a list and keeps looking until it reaches the end of the file. Then, if any characters were found, they are highlighted according to the invalid scope in your theme. Once highlighted, they can be selected and deleted.

Since this plugin runs every single time the view is modified (after every keystroke, for example), it has the potential to really slow down Sublime, especially for large files. Therefore, if you are working on files you know are clean, simply rename the plugin to show_zero_width_space.py.old and make sure you delete any file named show_zero_width_space.pyc, and it won't be active. For a Sublime Text 3-specific workaround, see below.

---

Sublime Text 3-specific version

The Sublime Text 3 API for EventListener now includes an on_modified_async() method, in keeping with the fact that all ST3 functions are now thread-safe. This runs the code asynchronously, in a non-blocking manner, so Sublime shouldn't be slowed down by it. The new plugin is as follows:

---

import sublime_plugin

class ShowZeroWidthSpace(sublime_plugin.EventListener):
    def on_modified_async(self, view):
        spaces = []
        p = 0
        while True:
            s = view.find('\u200b', p + 1)
            if not s:
                break
            spaces.append(s)
            p = s.a
 
        if spaces:
            view.add_regions("zero-width", spaces, "invalid")
        else:
            view.erase_regions("zero-width")

---

Answer 2

The easiest way to delete zero width spaces in Sublime Text is using the search and replace functionality:

• Press Ctrl + h ( Alt + Cmd + f for Mac )
• Enable the Regular expression flag by clicking the leftmost button on the search panel or pressing Alt + r ( Alt + Cmd + r for Mac )
• Enter \x{200b} as the search term
• Make sure the "Replace with" field is empty and hit "Replace All"

---

Plugins for solving this problem for good!

I searched for a plugin that would highlight all the possibly code breaking characters but couldn't find one for Sublime Text so I wrote one: https://github.com/TuureKaunisto/highlight-dodgy-chars

The plugin works on a whitelist principle: all non-ascii characters that are not whitelisted in the settings get highlighted.

If you want to highlight things based on your own regular expression, this plugin will do the trick: https://github.com/bluegray/Highlighter and is also easily installable via Package Manager.