Re: From formatted to table

[Nick Dokos <nicholas.dokos@hp.com>]

Jonathan Arkell <jonathana@criticalmass.com> wrote:

> I do a macros for this
> 
> Put the point on the first word of the table
> Record Macro
> Search for " "
> Insert "|"
> Tab (next column)
> Tab (first column next row
> Stop Recording.
> 
> Then just C-x e (run macro) until the job is done.   If you know how many l=
> ines are on the table, you can use a prefix argument with C-x e.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: emacs-orgmode-bounces+jonathana=3Dcriticalmass.com@gnu.org [mailto:em=
> acs-orgmode-bounces+jonathana=3Dcriticalmass.com@gnu.org] On Behalf Of andr=
> ea Crotti
> Sent: September 29, 2009 8:49 AM
> To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> Subject: [Orgmode] From formatted to table
> 
> I have for example a table where
> 
> | one thing     | dsjfls   |
> | two things    | dslkjfls |
> | three abc dej | dsf      |
> 
> And I would like to get
> 
> | one   | thing   | dsjfls   |
> | two   | things  | dslkjfls |
> | three | abc dej | dsf      |
> 
> I tried some simple substitutions but substituting all the spaces in
> the region selected will cause problems elsewhere.  I would need to
> substitute " " only in one column, is that possible?
> 
> 

Two things to add to Jonathan's answer:

o You don't have to know the length of the table: just mark the region
containing the table, C-x n n (narrow-to-region) and C-0 C-x e to repeat
the macro for ever or until an error occurs, whichever comes first :-)
Then widen: C-x n w


o Alternatively, "It's just text" (TM), so you can use a
sed/perl/awk/python/foo script to do arbitrary
transformations. Blasphemy, I know, but emacs doesn't have to do
everything.

You can even run the script from within emacs: mark the region and C-u
M-| (shell-command-on-region with the prefix argument specifying that
that output of the command is to replace the region) with the following
script

    sed '/|/s/[^|] /&| /'

should do the trick. It's utterly liberating to be able to use all sorts
of different tools on your file and the single, most important advantage
of org-mode when compared to all the other systems out there.

HTH,
Nick