align-regexp not working as intended

align-regexp not working as intended

[Florian Lindner]

Hello,

on my Emacs 24.2.1 7 / Arch align-regexp is not working like I expect it to:

I have a latex table:

    & $C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ & $C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ & $C_D$ & $C_L$ &
$C_M$ \\ \hline
    5-Spoke & $0.640$ & $0.396$ & $\approx 0$ & $0.599$ & $0.394$ &
$0.017$ & $0.599$ & $0.356$ & $0.019$ \\
    7-Spoke & $0.646$ & $0.407$ & $0.0017$ & $0.592$ & $0.377$ &
$0.0167$ & $0.606$ & $0.349$ & $0.0280$ \\
    DA Wheel & $0.649$ & $0.421$ & $-0.0004$ & $0.607$ & $0.392$ &
$0.0145$ & $0.614$ & $0.384$ & $0.024$ \\
    GenWheel Open & $0.640$ & $0.330$ & $0.0012$ & $0.613$ & $0.253$ &
$0.018$ & $0.660$ & $0.201$ & $0.031$ \\
    GenWheel Closed & $0.617$ & $0.302$ & $0.0015$ & $0.579$ & $0.280$
& $0.0206$ & $0.580$ & $0.281$ & $0.0206$ \\

This should be aligned at the &: M-x align-regexp & with the part
above as active region gives me:

                    & $C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ & $C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ &
$C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ \\ \hline
    5-Spoke         & $0.640$ & $0.396$ & $\approx 0$ & $0.599$ &
$0.394$ & $0.017$ & $0.599$ & $0.356$ & $0.019$ \\
    7-Spoke         & $0.646$ & $0.407$ & $0.0017$ & $0.592$ & $0.377$
& $0.0167$ & $0.606$ & $0.349$ & $0.0280$ \\
    DA Wheel        & $0.649$ & $0.421$ & $-0.0004$ & $0.607$ &
$0.392$ & $0.0145$ & $0.614$ & $0.384$ & $0.024$ \\
    GenWheel Open   & $0.640$ & $0.330$ & $0.0012$ & $0.613$ & $0.253$
& $0.018$ & $0.660$ & $0.201$ & $0.031$ \\
    GenWheel Closed & $0.617$ & $0.302$ & $0.0015$ & $0.579$ & $0.280$
& $0.0206$ & $0.580$ & $0.281$ & $0.0206$ \\

(you should swith your font to fixed-width now)

The align is fine at the first columns but somehow got off later...

What is the problem here?

If there is some problem with mail reader introduced line breaks or
font width, the entire posting is available here:
http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=3JZiKiaS

Thanks!

Florian

Re: align-regexp not working as intended

[jpkotta]

On Monday, March 18, 2013 5:15:25 AM UTC-5, Florian Lindner wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> 
> 
> on my Emacs 24.2.1 7 / Arch align-regexp is not working like I expect it to:
> 
> 
> 
> I have a latex table:
> 
> 
> 
>     & $C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ & $C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ & $C_D$ & $C_L$ &
> 
> $C_M$ \\ \hline
> 
>     5-Spoke & $0.640$ & $0.396$ & $\approx 0$ & $0.599$ & $0.394$ &
> 
> $0.017$ & $0.599$ & $0.356$ & $0.019$ \\
> 
>     7-Spoke & $0.646$ & $0.407$ & $0.0017$ & $0.592$ & $0.377$ &
> 
> $0.0167$ & $0.606$ & $0.349$ & $0.0280$ \\
> 
>     DA Wheel & $0.649$ & $0.421$ & $-0.0004$ & $0.607$ & $0.392$ &
> 
> $0.0145$ & $0.614$ & $0.384$ & $0.024$ \\
> 
>     GenWheel Open & $0.640$ & $0.330$ & $0.0012$ & $0.613$ & $0.253$ &
> 
> $0.018$ & $0.660$ & $0.201$ & $0.031$ \\
> 
>     GenWheel Closed & $0.617$ & $0.302$ & $0.0015$ & $0.579$ & $0.280$
> 
> & $0.0206$ & $0.580$ & $0.281$ & $0.0206$ \\
> 
> 
> 
> This should be aligned at the &: M-x align-regexp & with the part
> 
> above as active region gives me:
> 
> 
> 
>                     & $C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ & $C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ &
> 
> $C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ \\ \hline
> 
>     5-Spoke         & $0.640$ & $0.396$ & $\approx 0$ & $0.599$ &
> 
> $0.394$ & $0.017$ & $0.599$ & $0.356$ & $0.019$ \\
> 
>     7-Spoke         & $0.646$ & $0.407$ & $0.0017$ & $0.592$ & $0.377$
> 
> & $0.0167$ & $0.606$ & $0.349$ & $0.0280$ \\
> 
>     DA Wheel        & $0.649$ & $0.421$ & $-0.0004$ & $0.607$ &
> 
> $0.392$ & $0.0145$ & $0.614$ & $0.384$ & $0.024$ \\
> 
>     GenWheel Open   & $0.640$ & $0.330$ & $0.0012$ & $0.613$ & $0.253$
> 
> & $0.018$ & $0.660$ & $0.201$ & $0.031$ \\
> 
>     GenWheel Closed & $0.617$ & $0.302$ & $0.0015$ & $0.579$ & $0.280$
> 
> & $0.0206$ & $0.580$ & $0.281$ & $0.0206$ \\
> 
> 
> 
> (you should swith your font to fixed-width now)
> 
> 
> 
> The align is fine at the first columns but somehow got off later...
> 
> 
> 
> What is the problem here?
> 
> 
> 
> If there is some problem with mail reader introduced line breaks or
> 
> font width, the entire posting is available here:
> 
> http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=3JZiKiaS
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> 
> 
> Florian

align-regexp has an optional repeat argument which must be set to t to do what you want.  Here is a command that I use for these sorts of tasks:

(defun align-regexp-repeated (start stop regexp)
  "Like align-regexp, but repeated for multiple columns. See
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/AlignCommands"
  (interactive "r\nsAlign regexp: ")
  (let ((spacing 1)
        (old-buffer-size (buffer-size)))
    ;; If our align regexp is just spaces, then we don't need any
    ;; extra spacing.
    (when (string-match regexp " ")
      (setq spacing 0))
    (align-regexp start stop
                  ;; add space at beginning of regexp
                  (concat "\\([[:space:]]*\\)" regexp)
                  1 spacing t)
    ;; modify stop because align-regexp will add/remove characters
    (align-regexp start (+ stop (- (buffer-size) old-buffer-size))
                  ;; add space at end of regexp
                  (concat regexp "\\([[:space:]]*\\)")
                  1 spacing t)))