At times I need to copy content of the current field or few fields around the field in the current row. I realized that we do not have a function that selects fields. We have function that blanks a field but not one that selects. Please point me to the right function if I missed it.
But as I couldn't find anything like that, I came up with the below. Please advise if there's a better way to do the same or if I this could be added to org.
(defun org-table-mark-field (n)
"Mark the current table field.
If N is negative, select (- N) fields to the left of the current field,
including the current field.
If N >= 2, select (1- N) fields to the right of the current field,
including the current field.
If N is 0 or 1 (default), only the current field is selected."
(interactive "p")
(let ((bol-point (save-excursion
(beginning-of-line)
(point)))
(bof-arg 1)
(eof-arg 1)
(p (point))
bof-p)
;; Check if the point is already at the beginning of the current field.
(when (looking-back "|\\s-*" bol-point)
(setq bof-p t))
;; When selecting current field plus fields to the right
(when (>= n 2)
(setq eof-arg n))
;; When selecting current field plus fields to the left
(when (<= n -1)
(setq bof-arg (- n)))
(org-table-beginning-of-field bof-arg)
(when bof-p
(org-table-next-field))
(set-mark-command nil)
(goto-char p)
(org-table-end-of-field eof-arg)
(exchange-point-and-mark)))
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Using bind-key (use-package), I bind the above to S-SPC only as long as the point is in a table. More on context-aware key bindings[1].
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(bind-keys
:map org-mode-map
:filter (org-at-table-p)
("S-SPC" . org-table-mark-field))