replace tab stops with spaces

replace tab stops with spaces

[Roland Reichenberg]

Hi everybody,

in our small development team nearly everybody uses a different editor 
to work on our sources. And not every editor is configured to use blank 
spaces instead of tab stops. So our sources contain both real tab stops 
and blank spaces.

This bothers me while editing buffers. Is there an easy-to-use command 
which converts all tab stops into 4 blank spaces?

Thanks in advance,

	Roland

Re: replace tab stops with spaces

[Edric M Ellis]

Roland Reichenberg wrote:
> in our small development team nearly everybody uses a different
> editor to work on our sources. And not every editor is configured to
> use blank spaces instead of tab stops. So our sources contain both
> real tab stops and blank spaces.

I assume telling them to use a better editor is out of the question ;)

> This bothers me while editing buffers. Is there an easy-to-use
> command which converts all tab stops into 4 blank spaces?

C-x h M-x untabify RET?

NB that "untabify" uses the current value of tab-width, but you could
hard-wire it, and do the whole buffer at once like this:

(defun untabify-whole-buffer-4 nil
  (interactive)
  (let ((tab-width 4))  
    (untabify (point-min) (point-max))))

Cheers,

Edric.       

-- 
Edric M Ellis
The MathWorks, Ltd., Matrix House, Cowley Park, Cambridge CB4 0HH, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 423 200    Ext: 218
Fax: +44 (0) 1223 423 255

Re: replace tab stops with spaces

[Kevin Dziulko]

With the cursor at the beginning of the file, type M-x replace string.
At the "Replace string:" prompt, hit tab key then enter.
At the "Replace string   with:" prompt hit 4 spaces then enter.


On Mon, 14 Oct 2002, Roland Reichenberg wrote:

> Hi everybody,
>
> in our small development team nearly everybody uses a different editor
> to work on our sources. And not every editor is configured to use blank
> spaces instead of tab stops. So our sources contain both real tab stops
> and blank spaces.
>
> This bothers me while editing buffers. Is there an easy-to-use command
> which converts all tab stops into 4 blank spaces?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> 	Roland
>
> _______________________________________________
> Help-gnu-emacs mailing list
> Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs
>

RE: replace tab stops with spaces

[Bingham, Jay]

The suggested approach may produce undesirable results, such as when a tab takes less than a fixed number of spaces, which is the reason for existence of tab characters.

Instead try the M-x untabify command at the start of the buffer

untabify is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `tabify'.
(untabify START END)

Convert all tabs in region to multiple spaces, preserving columns.
Called non-interactively, the region is specified by arguments
START and END, rather than by the position of point and mark.
The variable `tab-width' controls the spacing of tab stops.

-_
J_)
C_)ingham
.    HP - NonStop Austin Software & Services - Software Product Assurance
.    Austin, TX
. Language is the apparel in which your thoughts parade in public.
. Never clothe them in vulgar and shoddy attire.          -Dr. George W. Crane-

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Kevin Dziulko [mailto:dziulko@klaatu.canisius.edu] 
Sent:	Monday, October 14, 2002 9:04 AM
To:	help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject:	Re: replace tab stops with spaces

With the cursor at the beginning of the file, type M-x replace string.
At the "Replace string:" prompt, hit tab key then enter.
At the "Replace string   with:" prompt hit 4 spaces then enter.


On Mon, 14 Oct 2002, Roland Reichenberg wrote:

> Hi everybody,
>
> in our small development team nearly everybody uses a different editor
> to work on our sources. And not every editor is configured to use blank
> spaces instead of tab stops. So our sources contain both real tab stops
> and blank spaces.
>
> This bothers me while editing buffers. Is there an easy-to-use command
> which converts all tab stops into 4 blank spaces?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> 	Roland
>
> _______________________________________________
> Help-gnu-emacs mailing list
> Help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs
>



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