File: `delim-col.el.html`

delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.

If you have, for example, the following columns:

a b c d
aaaa bb ccc ddddd
aaa bbb cccc dddd
aa bb ccccccc ddd

And the following settings:

   (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
   (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
   (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
   (setq delimit-columns-before "")
   (setq delimit-columns-after "")
   (setq delimit-columns-separator "\\t")
   (setq delimit-columns-format 'separator)
   (setq delimit-columns-extra t)

If you select the lines above and type:

M-x delimit-columns-region RET

You obtain the following result:

[ a , b , c , d ]
[ aaaa, bb , ccc , ddddd ]
[ aaa , bbb, cccc , dddd ]
[ aa , bb , ccccccc, ddd ]

But if you select start from the very first b to the very last c and type:

M-x delimit-columns-rectangle RET

You obtain the following result:

a [ b , c ] d
aaaa [ bb , ccc ] ddddd
aaa [ bbb, cccc ] dddd
aa [ bb , ccccccc ] ddd

Now, if we change settings to:

(setq delimit-columns-before "<")
(setq delimit-columns-after ">")

For the delimit-columns-region example above, the result is:

[ <a> , <b> , <c> , <d> ]
[ <aaaa>, <bb> , <ccc> , <ddddd> ]
[ <aaa> , <bbb>, <cccc> , <dddd> ]
[ <aa> , <bb> , <ccccccc>, <ddd> ]

And for the delimit-columns-rectangle example above, the result is:

a [ <b> , <c> ] d
aaaa [ <bb> , <ccc> ] ddddd
aaa [ <bbb>, <cccc> ] dddd
aa [ <bb> , <ccccccc> ] ddd

Note that delimit-columns-region operates over the entire selected text region, extending the region start to the beginning of line and the region end to the end of line. While delimit-columns-rectangle operates over the text rectangle selected which rectangle diagonal is given by the region start and end.

See delimit-columns-format(var)/delimit-columns-format(fun) variable documentation for column formatting.

delimit-columns-region is useful when you have columns of text that are not well aligned, like:

horse apple bus
dog pineapple car
porcupine strawberry airplane

delimit-columns-region and delimit-columns-rectangle handle lines with different number of columns, like:

horse apple bus
dog pineapple car EXTRA
porcupine strawberry airplane

Use delimit-columns-customize to customize delim-col package variables.

Defined variables (10)

`delimit-columns-after`	Specify a string to be inserted after each column.
`delimit-columns-before`	Specify a string to be inserted before each column.
`delimit-columns-end`	Specify column number to end prettifying.
`delimit-columns-extra`	Non-nil means that lines will have the same number of columns.
`delimit-columns-format`	Specify how to format columns.
`delimit-columns-separator`	Specify a regexp which separates each column.
`delimit-columns-start`	Specify column number to start prettifying.
`delimit-columns-str-after`	Specify a string to be inserted after all columns.
`delimit-columns-str-before`	Specify a string to be inserted before all columns.
`delimit-columns-str-separator`	Specify a string to be inserted between each column.

Defined functions (7)

`delimit-columns-customize`	()
`delimit-columns-format`	(SPACES)
`delimit-columns-rectangle`	(START END)
`delimit-columns-rectangle-line`	(STARTPOS &optional BEGEXTRA ENDEXTRA)
`delimit-columns-rectangle-max`	(STARTPOS &optional BEGEXTRA ENDEXTRA)
`delimit-columns-region`	(START END)
`delimit-columns-str`	(STR)

File: delim-col.el.html

Defined variables (10)

Defined functions (7)

Defined faces (0)

File: `delim-col.el.html`