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PeterVandivier

When sharing fiddle, often there is a small section of a larger batch or result set you’d like to bring special attention to.

In addition to the exemplary &hide= functionality, we should have an &show= parameter that provides highlighting when the page is rendered. Please consider the following by way of a mock-up

<>https://dbfiddle.uk/?rdbms=sqlserver_2019&fiddle=fc21dcd7bf399bfd18981781bc005f95

When using this fiddle on TopAnswers, I would like to display the 3rd and 4th batches, highlighting use of the iif() function, into syntax, and the resulting rows in bar where we’ve found an even number.

I might use a link of the following form:

https://dbfiddle.uk/?rdbms=sqlserver_2019&fiddle=fc21dcd7bf399bfd18981781bc005f95&hide=3&show=4q,2-6,9&show=8r,1,3

…which might show me…

untitled.png

By way of explanation of the mock-up -

  • multiple &show= args are permitted
  • &show= requires a comma-separated series of the form [1-9(q|r)],[1-9\-],[1-9\-],...
  • the first element of &show= is a two-part identifier anchoring the batch using the same bitmask integer one would use for &hide=, q is used to denote the query portion of the batch, r denotes the resultset portion.
  • the elements after the first use the same line-anchor syntax you might use in GitHub (for example). e.g. “1-3” denotes the range of line 1 through line 3. Each comma-separated element is a new highlighted range

In our example…

  • &show=4q,2-6,9 indexes the 3rd batch (id 4) on the query side; and highlights lines 2 through 6 and then line 9
  • &show=8r,1,3 indexes the 4th batch (id 8) on the resultset side; and highlights line 1 and line 3
Top Answer
PeterVandivier

As a self-service workaround, text fragments can be added to mock this functionality. Currently supported in:

  • Chrome
  • Edge
  • others? (please add here 🙂)

Text fragments support range capture (for long highlighted strings) and skip-match (for getting the 2nd, 3rd, or Nth occurrence of a pattern.

The URL to get the result for the example above is…

https://dbfiddle.uk/?rdbms=sqlserver_2019&fiddle=fc21dcd7bf399bfd18981781bc005f95&hide=3#:~:text=iif(,a_is_even&text=into%20bar&text=b-,0,10,-1&text=20-,0,30

…which renders as follows (in Edge).

image.png

All text after the hash (#) symbol are used in this example for text fragment highlighting. The individual highlight commands are delimited by ampersand (&) and break down as follows

  • text=iif(,a_is_even

    • this is a range match for the iif() expression split over multiple lines
    • the comma (,) character delimits between textStart and textEnd

    image.png

  • text=into%20bar

    • because this fragment has un-highlighted whitespace between it and the first fragment, it needs it’s own argument. The space () character must be percent-encoded in the URL, but copy-pasting the fragment into your URL bar should automagically convert it for you on most browser clients

  • text=b-,0,10,-

    • this fragment requires skip-match syntax
    • For text fragments in the (non-interactive) result set area, Chrome and Edge currently have built-in functionality to extract the text fragment syntax needed

    Chrome Edge

  • text=20-,0,30

comments
transcript
3 years
PeterVandivier — Monday, 20th Jun 2022 19:53

that said, now that i know i can right-click/one-click link to most locations on most pages i wil absolutely be doing that

PeterVandivier — Monday, 20th Jun 2022 19:52

but i haven’t it particularly onerous to type the prefix #:~:text= and copy-paste in whatever i wanted from the body of the page

PeterVandivier replying to Jack Douglas — Monday, 20th Jun 2022 19:51

fwiw, i’m a pretty tedious person so i haven’t had a problem yet creating them by hand 😅

4 hours
PeterVandivier — Monday, 20th Jun 2022 16:10

i’m very familiar with text fragments but for some reason it had not occurred to me to try them for this 🤦‍♂️

2 days
Jack Douglas — Saturday, 18th Jun 2022 15:48

you’d normally use a browser extension to create the links as doing so by hand is tedious

Jack Douglas — Saturday, 18th Jun 2022 15:47

from reading around it looks like FF may also add support, and if they do I expect Safari to eventually follow

Jack Douglas — Saturday, 18th Jun 2022 15:40

@PeterVandivier, re: your question, do you know about Chrome’s text fragments? Here’s an example on a fiddle: https://dbfiddle.uk/?rdbms=sqlserver_2019&fiddle=06073f8adae8d59fb89c8a415d4b398f#:~:text=Microsoft Corporation&text=Windows Server

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