align-regexp for many column separators

align-regexp for many column separators

[Michael Chen]

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Dear there,
I would like to align at "&":

1&2&3\\
1000&2000&3000\\

==>

1      &2      &3\\
1000&2000&3000\\


M-x align-regexp only aligns the first "&", i.e., I get
1      &2&3\\
1000&2000&3000\\


Any suggestions?

-- 
All the best,
Michael Chen

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Re: align-regexp for many column separators

[anshul.verma86]

Thanks @jpkotta...works like a charm!

On Friday, September 2, 2011 at 7:59:42 AM UTC-7, jpkotta wrote:
> On Aug 24, 9:43 am, Michael Chen <vancouver.mich...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Dear there,
> > I would like to align at "&":
> >
> > 1&2&3\\
> > 1000&2000&3000\\
> >
> > ==>
> >
> > 1      &2      &3\\
> > 1000&2000&3000\\
> >
> > M-x align-regexp only aligns the first "&", i.e., I get
> > 1      &2&3\\
> > 1000&2000&3000\\
> >
> > Any suggestions?
> >
> > --
> > All the best,
> > Michael Chen
> 
> You can do it directly with align-regexp, but I can't ever remember
> exactly how when I need it.  So I use this:
> 
> (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)))