The function delete-indentation, usually bound to (M-^), joins the current line to the next one and deletes any indentation.
How do I apply this function to a whole region to join multiple lines in a region?
Or is there another way to achieve the desired result?
Thanks
Try unfill-paragraph, taken from the Emacs wiki.
;;; An unfill-paragraph that works in lisp modes
(defun unfill-paragraph (&optional region)
"Takes a multi-line paragraph and makes it into a single line of text."
(interactive (progn (barf-if-buffer-read-only) '(t)))
(let ((fill-column (point-max))
(emacs-lisp-docstring-fill-column t))
(fill-paragraph nil region)))
If you're willing to give up the prefix argument of the standard M-^, you could bind the following function to that keyboard shortcut like so:
(defun join-line-or-unfill-paragraph (&optional unfill)
(interactive "P")
(if unfill (unfill-paragraph) (delete-indentation)))
(global-set-key (kbd "M-^") 'join-line-or-unfill-paragraph)
This way, whenever you type C-u before M-^ the full paragraph will be joined.
Related
For example, my cursor (point) is at an arbitrary letter in the word "cursor". I want to delete (kill) that word such that it is copied to kill-ring.
The Emacs way to remove the word one is inside of to press M-backspace followed by M-d. That will kill the word at point and save it to kill ring (as one unit).
If the cursor is at the beginning or after the end of the word, only one of the two is sufficient. An Emacs user will typically move between words using commands such as forward-word (M-f) and backward-word (M-b), so they will be at the word boundary to begin with and thus rarely need to kill the word from the inside.
You could use this as a framework for killing various kinds of things at point:
(defun my-kill-thing-at-point (thing)
"Kill the `thing-at-point' for the specified kind of THING."
(let ((bounds (bounds-of-thing-at-point thing)))
(if bounds
(kill-region (car bounds) (cdr bounds))
(error "No %s at point" thing))))
(defun my-kill-word-at-point ()
"Kill the word at point."
(interactive)
(my-kill-thing-at-point 'word))
(global-set-key (kbd "s-k w") 'my-kill-word-at-point)
You can do that by moving to the beginning of the word (if not standing there already) by M-b, then deleting it with M-d. You can then press C-y to put it back. If you want to automate it, you can create a short elisp function and assign it to a key:
(global-set-key [24 C-backspace] ; C-x C-backspace
(lambda () (interactive)
(save-excursion
(backward-word)
(kill-word 1)
(yank))))
For some reason, copying lines in Emacs is very unintuitive and difficult. If I'm doing something wrong here, please let me know. It is surprising that Emacs does not have this by default somewhere.
I am trying to write a function that copies a line. I always used to have:
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x c") "\C-a\C- \C-n\M-w")
This is a little annoying since it copies any new line after the line. I decided to change it to:
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x c") "\M-m\C- \C-e\M-w")
Now, I saw: http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/CopyingWholeLines and it appears that their copy-line function prints a message with the number of lines it copied. I am trying to insert that message into my global-set-key above but it is not working. Basically, I am unable to run a raw sequence as above in a function. So I conveyed each keystroke into a function and did this:
(defun copy-line ()
(interactive)
(kill-ring-save
(back-to-indentation)
(move-end-of-line 1))
(message "1 line copied"))
;; optional key binding
(global-set-key "\C-c\C-k" 'copy-line)
This however, throws a wrong number of arguments error.
My first question: How can I put (message "1 line copied") into my global-set-key above?
My second question: using the standard copy-line found in the link above:
(defun copy-line (arg)
"Copy lines (as many as prefix argument) in the kill ring"
(interactive "p")
(kill-ring-save (line-beginning-position)
(line-beginning-position (+ 1 arg)))
(message "%d line%s copied" arg (if (= 1 arg) "" "s")))
From the message, it appears that you can have multiple lines copied. However, when selecting multiple lines and copying, only one is copied. Why is the message structured in this way? How can it select multiple lines?
Here's your function, fixed:
(defun copy-line ()
(interactive)
(save-excursion
(back-to-indentation)
(kill-ring-save
(point)
(line-end-position)))
(message "1 line copied"))
The problem was that back-to-indentation doesn't return point.
As for the other function, it will copy multiple lines when called with
a prefix argument, e.g. C-u or M-5.
Here's a shorter version of the simple function:
(defun copy-line ()
(interactive)
(kill-ring-save (point-at-bol) (point-at-eol))
(message "1 line copied"))
For the multiline copy version that you cited, use the prefix to indicate how many lines you want copied (as the other answer suggests). So, with your keybinding of C-c C-k, do the following to copy, say, 3 lines: C-u 3 C-c C-k.
When switching files using the minibuffer (C-x C-f), I often use M-Backspace to delete words in the path. Emacs automatically places what I delete into the kill ring. This can be annoying, as sometime I am moving to another file to paste something, and I end up pasting part of the file path. I know there are workarounds, and the other code is still in the kill ring, etc, but I would just like to disable this functionality.
Emacs doesn't have a backward-delete-word function, but it's easy enough to define one:
(defun backward-delete-word (arg)
"Delete characters backward until encountering the beginning of a word.
With argument ARG, do this that many times."
(interactive "p")
(delete-region (point) (progn (backward-word arg) (point))))
Then you can bind M-Backspace to backward-delete-word in minibuffer-local-map:
(define-key minibuffer-local-map [M-backspace] 'backward-delete-word)
See a discussion of this topic at help-gnu-emacs#gnu.org:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-gnu-emacs/2011-10/msg00277.html
The discussion boils down to this short solution:
(add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook'
(lambda ()
(make-local-variable 'kill-ring)))
You just have to replace the function called by M-<backspace>, namely backward-kill-word, with backward-delete-word, which you can easily define using the source definition of backward-kill-word found in lisp source for emacs. You do this by substituting kill-region for delete-regionas in the following code, which also defines delete-word (delete word after the cursor). You can just paste this code in your .emacs file.
(defun delete-word (arg)
"Delete characters forward until encountering the end of a word.
With argument ARG, do this that many times."
(interactive "p")
(delete-region (point) (progn (forward-word arg) (point))))
(defun backward-delete-word (arg)
"Delete characters backward until encountering the beginning of a word.
With argument ARG, do this that many times."
(interactive "p")
(delete-word (- arg)))
(global-set-key (kbd "M-<backspace>") 'backward-delete-word)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-<delete>") 'delete-word)
I don't know if there's something wrong with my settings but when I press M-f (forward a word)
it doesn't matter where I am, it never place the cursor in the next word (just between words). This doesn't happen with M-b which place my cursor in the beginning of the previous word.
Is this a normal behavior? How do I place my cursor at the beginning of the following word?
The macro solution described is a great way to get this behavior in a session, but it's a little inconvenient if that's the default behavior you want, since you have to define it every time you start emacs. If you want M-f to work like this all the time, you can define an elisp function and bind it to the key. Put this in your .emacs file:
(defun next-word (p)
"Move point to the beginning of the next word, past any spaces"
(interactive "d")
(forward-word)
(forward-word)
(backward-word))
(global-set-key "\M-f" 'next-word)
Ok, just so we're clear, Im going to assume you are talking about the commands forward-word and backward-word these are bound by default to Alt+f and Alt+b
eg string: "Hello dolly I am here"
If your cursor is on the "H" of "Hello", and you do forward-word the cursor will move to the space between "Hello" and "dolly", but it sounds like you want the cursor to be on the letter "d" of "dolly" instead of in-front of it.
So, do forward-word twice, then backward-word once.
That will put your cursor on the "d" of "dolly".
This can be automated with a macro.
;; = comments, do not type them
Ctrl+x ( ;;start macro
Alt+f Alt+f Alt+b
Ctrl+x ) ;;end macro
Then to run last defined macro do this:
Ctrl+x e
EDIT: as pascal mentioned in a comment, this can also just be done with
Alt+f Ctrl+f
You could put that into a macro as well, either way the result is the same.
That is correct behavior. According to the Emacs manual, "[f]orward motion stops right after the last letter of the word, while backward motion stops right before the first letter."
Why is it this way? Perhaps to be consistent with kill-word (M-d).
Moving forward twice and backwards once is fine unless you are at the beginning of a line with spaces in the front. Then going forward twice and back once will move you to the next word not the first word. The code below will mimic vi's "w" command perfectly. I've written this quite fast so this code can be cleaned up further.
(defun forward-word-to-beginning (&optional n)
"Move point forward n words and place cursor at the beginning."
(interactive "p")
(let (myword)
(setq myword
(if (and transient-mark-mode mark-active)
(buffer-substring-no-properties (region-beginning) (region-end))
(thing-at-point 'symbol)))
(if (not (eq myword nil))
(forward-word n))
(forward-word n)
(backward-word n)))
(global-set-key (kbd "M-C-f") 'forward-word-to-beginning)
Try something like following:
;; replace common word-operations on same-syntax-operations
(require 'thingatpt)
(global-set-key "\M-f" 'forward-same-syntax)
(global-set-key "\M-b" (lambda()
(interactive)
(forward-same-syntax -1)))
(defun kill-syntax (&optional arg)
"Kill ARG sets of syntax characters after point."
(interactive "p")
(let ((opoint (point)))
(forward-same-syntax arg)
(kill-region opoint (point))))
(global-set-key "\M-d" 'kill-syntax)
(global-set-key [(meta backspace)] (lambda()
(interactive)
(kill-syntax -1)))
You can achieve this behavior by using the forward-to-word and backward-to-word found in misc.el. I have these bound to Meta-F/Meta-B (i.e. with Shift pressed). These are equivalent to Meta-f/Meta-b for forward-word/backward-word
My .emacs has the following bindings
(global-set-key (kbd "M-F") #'forward-to-word)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-B") #'backward-to-word)
I am new to Emacs. I have googled this but no good answer there. One of them is
Ctrl-n Ctrl-a Backspace
This works but is stupid. Is there a quick and simple way to join a block of lines into a single line?
Actually, I can use Esc-q to auto-fill a paragraph now, but how could I get it to revert without UNDO?
Place point anywhere on the last line of the group of lines that need joining and call
M-^
repeatedly until all the lines are merged.
Note: It leaves one space between all of the now joined lines.
M-x join-line will join two lines. Just bind it to a convenient keystroke.
Multiple Cursors combined with M-^ will collapse all selected lines into one with all extraneous white-space removed.
For example to select an entire buffer, invoke multiple cursors mode, collapse into one line, and then disable multiple cursors mode:
C-x h
M-x mc/edit-lines
M-^
C-g
The Emacs conventional name for "join" is "fill". Yes, you can join
two lines with M-^ -- and that's handy -- but more generally you'll
want to join n lines. For this, see the fill* commands, such as
fill-region, fill-paragraph, etc.
See this for more info
on selecting things which can then be filled.
Also, you can join multiple lines with M-^ by selecting those lines first. (Note that the universal argument does not work with this.)
Just replace newlines with nothing.
I like the way Sublime text Join line with Command J so I do it this way:
(defun join-lines (arg)
(interactive "p")
(end-of-line)
(delete-char 1)
(delete-horizontal-space)
(insert " "))
You could define a new command for this, temporarily adjusting the fill width before using the the Esc-q command:
;; -- define a new command to join multiple lines together --
(defun join-lines () (interactive)
(setq fill-column 100000)
(fill-paragraph nil)
(setq fill-column 78)
)
Obviously this only works, if your paragraph has less than 100000 characters.
I use the following function and bind it to 'M-J'.
(defun concat-lines ()
(interactive)
(next-line)
(join-line)
(delete-horizontal-space))
If you prefer to keep your cursor position, you can use save-excursion.
The most simplest way ever:
Select paragraph/lines by M-h or C-SPC
Press M-q
Witness the Emagics (Emacs Magic)!!
Because join-line will left one space between two lines, also it only support join two lines. In case of you want to join plenty of lines without one space left, you can use "search-replace" mode to solve, as follows:
C-%
Query: input C-q C-j Enter
Replace: Enter
Run the replacement. Enter
Done.
Two ways come to mind:
Once you think of it, the most obvious (or at least easiest to remember) way is to use M-q format-paragraph with a long line length C-x-f 1000.
There is also a built-in tool M-^ join-line. More usefully, if you select a region then it will combine them all into one line.
"how could I get it to revert without UNDO?":
(defun toggle-fill-paragraph ()
;; Based on http://xahlee.org/emacs/modernization_fill-paragraph.html
"Fill or unfill the current paragraph, depending upon the current line length.
When there is a text selection, act on the region.
See `fill-paragraph' and `fill-region'."
(interactive)
;; We set a property 'currently-filled-p on this command's symbol
;; (i.e. on 'toggle-fill-paragraph), thus avoiding the need to
;; create a variable for remembering the current fill state.
(save-excursion
(let* ((deactivate-mark nil)
(line-length (- (line-end-position) (line-beginning-position)))
(currently-filled (if (eq last-command this-command)
(get this-command 'currently-filled-p)
(< line-length fill-column)))
(fill-column (if currently-filled
most-positive-fixnum
fill-column)))
(if (region-active-p)
(fill-region (region-beginning) (region-end))
(fill-paragraph))
(put this-command 'currently-filled-p (not currently-filled)))))
(global-set-key (kbd "M-q") 'toggle-fill-paragraph)
From EmacsWiki: Unfill Paragraph
;;; Stefan Monnier <foo at acm.org>. It is the opposite of fill-paragraph
(defun unfill-paragraph (&optional region)
"Takes a multi-line paragraph and makes it into a single line of text."
(interactive (progn (barf-if-buffer-read-only) '(t)))
(let ((fill-column (point-max))
;; This would override `fill-column' if it's an integer.
(emacs-lisp-docstring-fill-column t))
(fill-paragraph nil region)))
A basic join of 2 lines:
(delete-indentation)
I like to line below to be joined to the current without moving the cursor:
("C-j" .
(lambda (iPoint)
"Join next line onto current line"
(interactive "d")
(next-line)
(delete-indentation)
(goto-char iPoint)))
This one behaves like in vscode. So it add space only if join line consisted something else than whitespace. And I bind it to alt+shift+j.
Shorter version based on crux-top-join-line:
(global-set-key (kbd "M-J") (lambda () (interactive) (delete-indentation 1)))
Longer version based on https://stackoverflow.com/a/33005183/588759.
;; https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1072662/by-emacs-how-to-join-two-lines-into-one/68685485#68685485
(defun join-lines ()
(interactive)
(next-line)
(join-line)
(delete-horizontal-space)
(unless (looking-at-p "\n") (insert " ")))
(global-set-key (kbd "M-J") 'join-lines)