Re: align-regexp not working as intended

[jpkotta]

On Monday, March 18, 2013 5:15:25 AM UTC-5, Florian Lindner wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> 
> 
> on my Emacs 24.2.1 7 / Arch align-regexp is not working like I expect it to:
> 
> 
> 
> I have a latex table:
> 
> 
> 
>     & $C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ & $C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ & $C_D$ & $C_L$ &
> 
> $C_M$ \\ \hline
> 
>     5-Spoke & $0.640$ & $0.396$ & $\approx 0$ & $0.599$ & $0.394$ &
> 
> $0.017$ & $0.599$ & $0.356$ & $0.019$ \\
> 
>     7-Spoke & $0.646$ & $0.407$ & $0.0017$ & $0.592$ & $0.377$ &
> 
> $0.0167$ & $0.606$ & $0.349$ & $0.0280$ \\
> 
>     DA Wheel & $0.649$ & $0.421$ & $-0.0004$ & $0.607$ & $0.392$ &
> 
> $0.0145$ & $0.614$ & $0.384$ & $0.024$ \\
> 
>     GenWheel Open & $0.640$ & $0.330$ & $0.0012$ & $0.613$ & $0.253$ &
> 
> $0.018$ & $0.660$ & $0.201$ & $0.031$ \\
> 
>     GenWheel Closed & $0.617$ & $0.302$ & $0.0015$ & $0.579$ & $0.280$
> 
> & $0.0206$ & $0.580$ & $0.281$ & $0.0206$ \\
> 
> 
> 
> This should be aligned at the &: M-x align-regexp & with the part
> 
> above as active region gives me:
> 
> 
> 
>                     & $C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ & $C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ &
> 
> $C_D$ & $C_L$ & $C_M$ \\ \hline
> 
>     5-Spoke         & $0.640$ & $0.396$ & $\approx 0$ & $0.599$ &
> 
> $0.394$ & $0.017$ & $0.599$ & $0.356$ & $0.019$ \\
> 
>     7-Spoke         & $0.646$ & $0.407$ & $0.0017$ & $0.592$ & $0.377$
> 
> & $0.0167$ & $0.606$ & $0.349$ & $0.0280$ \\
> 
>     DA Wheel        & $0.649$ & $0.421$ & $-0.0004$ & $0.607$ &
> 
> $0.392$ & $0.0145$ & $0.614$ & $0.384$ & $0.024$ \\
> 
>     GenWheel Open   & $0.640$ & $0.330$ & $0.0012$ & $0.613$ & $0.253$
> 
> & $0.018$ & $0.660$ & $0.201$ & $0.031$ \\
> 
>     GenWheel Closed & $0.617$ & $0.302$ & $0.0015$ & $0.579$ & $0.280$
> 
> & $0.0206$ & $0.580$ & $0.281$ & $0.0206$ \\
> 
> 
> 
> (you should swith your font to fixed-width now)
> 
> 
> 
> The align is fine at the first columns but somehow got off later...
> 
> 
> 
> What is the problem here?
> 
> 
> 
> If there is some problem with mail reader introduced line breaks or
> 
> font width, the entire posting is available here:
> 
> http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=3JZiKiaS
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> 
> 
> Florian

align-regexp has an optional repeat argument which must be set to t to do what 
you want.  Here is a command that I use for these sorts of tasks:

(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)))