How do I indent a region in Emacs?

Steps to do indentation interactively.

1. Select the region to be indented.
2. C-x TAB .
3. Use arrows (← and →) to indent interactively.
4. Press Esc three times when you are done with the required indentation.

How do you set a tab to 4 spaces in Emacs?

Just change the value of indent-line-function to the insert-tab function and configure tab insertion as 4 spaces.

How many spaces is a tab in Emacs?

eight spaces
This is because standard tabs are set to eight spaces. Tabs are special characters. If you use a tab, it does not insert as many characters as it takes to get to the 8th, 16th, or so on space.

How do I change the tab size in Emacs?

With tab-width equal to the default value of 8, Emacs would insert 1 tab plus 2 spaces. Use t rather than nil to tell Emacs to use tab characters where appropriate. If you only want this in a particular mode, add (setq indent-tabs-mode nil) to that mode’s hook.

How do I use tabs in Emacs?

To manually insert a tab in Emacs, use ctrl-Q TAB. control-Q causes the next key to be inserted rather than interpreted as a possible command.

How do you set a mark in Emacs?

To set the mark, type C- SPC ( set-mark-command ). This makes the mark active; as you move point, you will see the region highlighting grow and shrink. The mouse commands for specifying the mark also make it active.

How do I run a lisp in Emacs?

In a fresh Emacs window, type ESC-x lisp-interaction-mode . That will turn your buffer into a LISP terminal; pressing Ctrl+j will feed the s-expression that your cursor (called “point” in Emacs manuals’ jargon) stands right behind to LISP, and will print the result.

How do I replace tabs with spaces in Emacs?

Thankfully, Emacs has facilities in place that make it possible to easily convert between tabs and spaces. The commands tabify and untabify do just that; they convert the region to tabs or whitespaces.

How do I fix indentation in Emacs?

Move to the end of the block you want to indent and set the mark by pressing C-SPC . Move the cursor to the first line of the block, and indent this line however far you want all the lines in the block to be indented. Press M-C-\ . The text in the marked block will now be reformatted.

How do you echo a tab character?

Use the verbatim keystroke, ^V ( CTRL+V , C-v , whatever). When you type ^V into the terminal (or in most Unix editors), the following character is taken verbatim. You can use this to type a literal tab character inside a string you are echoing.

How do you insert a tab in a text file?

It is just as easy to create a tab-separated file using a text editing program such as Notepad.

1. Open Notepad by clicking the “Start” icon, then “Accessories,” then “Notepad.”
2. Format your data.
3. Enter the first value into Notepad.
4. Press the “Tab” key on your keyboard.
5. Enter the second value.
6. Press the “Tab” key.

How do I mark text in Emacs?

You can first go to the beginning of the text to be capitalized, type C- SPC to put the mark there, move to the end, and then type C-x C-u . Or, you can set the mark at the end of the text, move to the beginning, and then type C-x C-u .

How do I indent a line of code in Emacs?

scheme-indent-function is invoked to compute the number of spaces to be used to indent a given line of code. Emacs can indent forms in this way: the first n arguments have deep indentation, the rest of the arguments have normal indentation. Let’s take this form:

Is it possible to insert a tab in Emacs?

People new to Emacs often feel like they just want to insert a tab. This is of course possible, but discouraged. Why make Emacs dumber than it is? Emacs can figure out how much indentation you need and do the right thing! Remember, often the indentation engines of major modes can be customized.

What is the default tab width in Emacs?

tab-width: How wide a tab is, default is 8. You should ensure these variables have the same value to avoid interoperability problems with other editors ( TextMate, for example) that are unable to separate tab width from indentation. The following will merge the indentation offset and tab width variables for Emacs as well:

How to autoindent file when save or visit in Emacs?

If you want to autoindent file when save or visit, try indent-file.el – coldnew The indent-file.el saves every time you visit a file. In addition you get your buffer untabbified and all the trailing whitespace removed. I don’t like emacs saving files every time I visit them.