sublime text plugin to move forward or backward to a given pattern. in this case, i search for "headers" defined as strings "####" or "# TEXT ---------". mostly designed for R.

sublime-r-section-move.py

import sublime, sublime_plugin

class MoveForwardToSectionCommand(sublime_plugin.TextCommand):
    def run(self, edit):
        v = self.view
        s = v.sel()

        pattern = "^[ ]*# [#]{4,}|^[ ]*[#]{4,}|^[ ]*#+ [\w]+.+[-]+$|^`{3}"

        # get current point and then look forward
        first_point = v.line(s[0]).a
        section_line = v.find(pattern, first_point)

        # if at section_line header, jump forward
        print('%d %d' % (first_point, section_line.a))
        if first_point == section_line.a:
            line = v.rowcol(section_line.a)[0] # get line number
            new_point = v.line(v.text_point(line + 1, 0)).a
            section_line = v.find(pattern, new_point)

        s.clear()
        s.add(section_line.a)
        v.show_at_center(section_line.a)


class MoveBackwardToSectionCommand(sublime_plugin.TextCommand):
    def run(self, edit):
        v = self.view
        s = v.sel()

        def get_text(row, col):
            return v.substr(v.line(v.text_point(row, col)))

        def search_backward(line, pattern):
            # print('%d' % line)
            if pattern.match(get_text(line, 0)): # if line -1 matches, return current line
                return search_backward(line - 1, pattern)
            elif pattern.match(get_text(line - 1, 0)): # if the next back line matches stop, jump back 2
                top = v.line(v.text_point(line - 1, 0))
                return top
            else:
                return search_backward(line - 1, pattern)

        import re
        pattern = re.compile("^[ ]*# [#]{4,}|^[ ]*[#]{4,}|^[ ]*#+ [\w]+.+[-]+$|^`{3}")

        # search for closest section top and bottom
        first_point = v.line(s[0]).a
        current_line = v.rowcol(first_point)[0] # get line number
        section_line = search_backward(current_line, pattern)

        s.clear()
        s.add(section_line.a)
        v.show_at_center(section_line.a)