Emacs: Copy/Cut Current Line If No Selection

Here's commands that will copy/cut current line if there's no text selection.

(defun xah-cut-line-or-region ()
  "Cut current line, or text selection.
When `universal-argument' is called first, cut whole buffer (respects `narrow-to-region').

URL `http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_copy_cut_current_line.html'
Version 2015-06-10"
  (interactive)
  (if current-prefix-arg
      (progn ; not using kill-region because we don't want to include previous kill
        (kill-new (buffer-string))
        (delete-region (point-min) (point-max)))
    (progn (if (use-region-p)
               (kill-region (region-beginning) (region-end) t)
             (kill-region (line-beginning-position) (line-beginning-position 2))))))

xah-copy-line-or-region

This command will copy current line if there's no text selection. If called again, it'll append-copy next line. So you can press a key repeatedly to keep copying lines.

(defun xah-copy-line-or-region ()
  "Copy current line, or text selection.
When called repeatedly, append copy subsequent lines.
When `universal-argument' is called first, copy whole buffer (respects `narrow-to-region').

URL `http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_copy_cut_current_line.html'
Version 2016-06-18"
  (interactive)
  (let (-p1 -p2)
    (if current-prefix-arg
        (setq -p1 (point-min) -p2 (point-max))
      (if (use-region-p)
          (setq -p1 (region-beginning) -p2 (region-end))
        (setq -p1 (line-beginning-position) -p2 (line-end-position))))
    (if (eq last-command this-command)
        (progn
          (progn ; hack. exit if there's no more next line
            (end-of-line)
            (forward-char)
            (backward-char))
          ;; (push-mark (point) "NOMSG" "ACTIVATE")
          (kill-append "\n" nil)
          (kill-append (buffer-substring-no-properties (line-beginning-position) (line-end-position)) nil)
          (message "Line copy appended"))
      (progn
        (kill-ring-save -p1 -p2)
        (if current-prefix-arg
            (message "Buffer text copied")
          (message "Text copied"))))
    (end-of-line)
    (forward-char)
    ))

Put the code in your emacs init file.

You need to give them a key. 〔➤see Emacs: How to Define Keys〕 A great hand saver is to bind them to single keys. Like this:

(global-set-key (kbd "<f2>") 'xah-cut-line-or-region) ; cut
(global-set-key (kbd "<f3>") 'xah-copy-line-or-region) ; copy
(global-set-key (kbd "<f4>") 'yank) ; paste

This is now part of ergoemacs-mode and xah fly keys.

2010-05-21 The code was inspired from http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/SlickCopy. Thanks to Joseph O'Donnell for mentioning it. Apparently, this behavior is default in VisualStudio, TextMate, Sublime Text, SlickEdit.

Copy/Cut All or Selection

See also: Emacs: Copy/Cut All or Selection.

or, buy something from my keyboard store.