Emacs: Edit Column Text, Rectangle Commands

This page shows you how to edit text in a rectangular region.

kill-rectangle

try to delete the middle column
3c21 646f 6374
6874 6d6c 3e3c
2063 6861 7273
202f 3e0a 3c6d
6965 7770 6f72
2277 6964 7468

Command	Key	Purpose
kill-rectangle	【Ctrl+x r k】	Delete selected column of text.

1. Put your cursor before “646f”.
2. Alt+x set-mark-command 【Ctrl+Space】.
3. Move cursor to end of “6964”.
4. Alt+x kill-rectangle.

replace-rectangle

Command	Key	Purpose
replace-rectangle	【Ctrl+x r t】	Replace text in a selected column.

try change this

 3c21 646f 6374
 6874 6d6c 3e3c
 2063 6861 7273
 202f 3e0a 3c6d
 6965 7770 6f72
 2277 6964 7468

to this

 3c21 cat 6374
 6874 cat 3e3c
 2063 cat 7273
 202f cat 3c6d
 6965 cat 6f72
 2277 cat 7468

1. Put your cursor before “646f”.
2. Alt+x set-mark-command 【Ctrl+Space】.
3. Move cursor to end of “6964”.
4. Alt+x replace-rectangle 【Ctrl+x r t】.

Paste Rectangle

Command	Key	Purpose
yank-rectangle	【Ctrl+x r y】	Paste a column of text (after you used kill-rectangle).

The yank-rectangle is useful when you want to move a column of text.

try to swap the 2nd and 3rd columns
3c21 646f 6374
6874 6d6c 3e3c
2063 6861 7273
202f 3e0a 3c6d
6965 7770 6f72
2277 6964 7468

Note: you need to call kill-rectangle first.

Insert a Column of Numbers

command	Key	Purpose
rectangle-number-lines	【Ctrl+x r N】	Insert numbers in a vertical column. (new in emacs 24) [see Emacs 24.1 New Features (released 2012-06)]

It is very useful for writing a ordered list of items.

try change this

cat
dog
bird
dragon

to this

1 cat
2 dog
3 bird
4 dragon

1. Put your cursor before the “cat”.
2. Alt+x set-mark-command 【Ctrl+Space】.
3. Move cursor to beginning of “dragon”.
4. Alt+x rectangle-number-lines.

To start with a different number, Alt+x universal-argument 【Ctrl+u】 right before rectangle-number-lines.

Insert A to Z

You can also insert letters A to Z by using rectangle-number-lines.

try change this

1 cat
2 creatures
  dragon
  phoenix
  elf
  hydra
  medusa
3 dog
4 bird

to this

1 cat
2 creatures
  A. dragon
  B. phoenix
  C. elf
  D. hydra
  E. medusa
3 dog
4 bird

1. Move cursor to the before “dragon”.
2. Alt+x set-mark-command 【Ctrl+Space】.
3. Move cursor to before “medusa”.
4. Alt+x universal-argument 【Ctrl+u】.
5. Now, Alt+x rectangle-number-lines. It will prompt you to enter arguments.
6. Type 65 (Letter A has Unicode codepoint 65. a is 97). [see ASCII Table]
7. Remove the default %2d , type %c. (the “%c” is for character format)

[see Emacs: Insert Alphabets A to Z]

More Rectangle Commands

Here's other rectangle commands, they are less often used.

command	Key	Purpose
delete-rectangle	【Ctrl+x r d】	similar to kill-rectangle, but doesn't save to a special clipboard.
string-insert-rectangle	◇	similar to replace-rectangle, but doesn't replace the rectangle text.
clear-rectangle	【Ctrl+x r c】	replace with space
delete-whitespace-rectangle	◇	Delete all whitespace following starting corner. (this is alias to close-rectangle)
delimit-columns-rectangle	◇	◇
open-rectangle	【Ctrl+x r o】	Insert space to the rectangle. (shifting text to the right)
copy-rectangle-as-kill	【Ctrl+x r Alt+w】	similar to kill-rectangle but doesn't delete.

rectangle-mark-mode

rectangle-mark-mode 【Ctrl+x Space】 will visually highlight the rectangle. This is new in emacs 24.4 [see Emacs 24.4 New Features (released 2014-10)]

Alt+x rectangle-mark-mode, then move cursor to highlight a rectangular area. Press ⌦ Delete will delete text in that rectangle area.

Copy Rectangle to kill-ring/clipboard

When you Alt+x kill-rectangle, the text does not go into emacs kill-ring nor the OS's clipboard.

If you want to copy a rectangle region, see:

Emacs: Copy Rectangle Region to kill-ring

2012-07-23 thanks to Markus Schütz

Emacs: picture-mode, ASCII diagram

Emacs: picture-mode, ASCII diagram