Evaluating selected expression using keyboard shortcut

Question

Imagine that in this toy code I want to evaluate just the selected (blue) expression:

To get as output result: {09/14,09/15,09/16,09/17,09/18,09/19,09/20}

There is some shortcut to do this? I'm looking for something like Command+Shift+Enter (Mac). But I don't want it to evaluate in place, but as an output. Maybe something that I can put into KeyEventTranslations.tr

Today I have to copy the code to outside the module, or comment the rest of it. In this toy code it's a easy task, but for bigger code it's very annoying to do.

Answer 1

The following will almost do it (the only two problems I did not manage to solve so far are that Out values are not printed and previous output cells are not deleted - but these should be solvable):

You can use CellEventActions, to effectively override the action for SHIFT+RETURN. Here is the code for the CellEventActions:

partialEvalRule = 
   {"MenuCommand", "HandleShiftReturn"} :>
       With[{nb = InputNotebook[]},
         With[{sel = NotebookRead[nb]},
           CellPrint @
              ExpressionCell[#, "Output", CellAutoOverwrite -> True] & @
                 ToExpression  @  
                    If[sel === {},
                      SelectionMove[nb, All, Cell];
                      First[
                         FrontEndExecute[
                            FrontEnd`ExportPacket[
                               NotebookSelection[nb], 
                               "InputText"
                            ]
                         ]
                      ],
                      (* else *)
                      sel
                    ]
         ]
       ];

where I used this excellent answer of John Fultz for code extraction from the selection (actually, it might have been better to use this for both branches of the If).

Here is how you can set this on a notebook level: create a new notebook

nb  = CreateDocument[]

Set the option:

SetOptions[nb, CellEventActions -> {partialEvalRule}]

Now if you start working in that notebook, you will see that you get what you requested, apart from the two issues I mentioned above.

Answer 2

It seems that this key shortcut added to KeyEventTranslations.tr does what you need:

 Item[
  KeyEvent["t", Modifiers -> {Control}],
      FrontEndExecute[
              FrontEnd`SelectionCreateCell[FrontEnd`InputNotebook[]];
              FrontEnd`SelectionMove[FrontEnd`InputNotebook[], All, CellContents];
              FrontEnd`SelectionEvaluate[FrontEnd`InputNotebook[]];
                     ]
     ]

This will work if the result is going to be one cell output, otherwise only first cell will stay. If you want all of them then use:

SelectionMove[FrontEnd`InputNotebook[], All, **Cell**]

but doubled input cell will not be overwritten.

---

I was trying to deal with multiple cell output with tagging input cell and then deleting it just after evaluation but I've faced a problem.

I failed setting CellTags. Is the syntax incorrect? Any comments appreciated.

 FrontEnd`SelectionCreateCell[FrontEnd`InputNotebook[]];
 FrontEnd`SelectionMove[FrontEnd`InputNotebook[], All, Cell];
 FrontEnd`SetOptions[FrontEnd`NotebookSelection[FrontEnd`InputNotebook[]], 
                     CellTags -> "temp"];
 FrontEnd`SelectionEvaluate[FrontEnd`InputNotebook[]];
 FrontEnd`NotebookDelete[FrontEnd`Cells[FrontEnd`InputNotebook[],
                                        CellTags -> "temp", GeneratedCell -> False]];
                 ]

Those procedures do what I've decribed, when added to Pallete. For complete code go to this answer edit history.