Re: [O] Complex conversion of text to org table

[Vicente Vera]

Hello. In this case Org splits into columns everytime it sees a space, so "baking soda" ends up in two columns. A brute force solution: replace the spaces between words that shouldn't be put into separated columns with an underscore:

1_cup all-purpose_flour

Convert it to an Org table and then do a quick M-x replace-string to replace '_' with ' '.

2017-03-12 15:14 GMT+00:00 Xebar Saram <address@hidden>:

Hi list

so im trying to use orgmode to collect food recepies. i have one issue which is to convert text based ingridents list into org tables.

for example take this list

3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter, melted
cooking spray

if i mark this as a region and issue `org-table-create-or-convert-from-region` this is the result

|     3/4 | cup         | milk        |         |      |        |     |       |         |

|       2 | tablespoons | white       | vinegar | (%or | better | yet | lemon | juice%) |

|       1 | cup         | all-purpose | flour   |      |        |     |       |         |

|       2 | tablespoons | white       | sugar   |      |        |     |       |         |

|       1 | teaspoon    | baking      | powder  |      |        |     |       |         |

|     1/2 | teaspoon    | baking      | soda    |      |        |     |       |         |

|     1/2 | teaspoon    | salt        |         |      |        |     |       |         |

|       1 | egg         |             |         |      |        |     |       |         |

|       2 | tablespoons | butter,     | melted  |      |        |     |       |         |

| cooking | spray       |             |         |      |        |     |       |         |

as you can see it got the amount (1/2) and the unit (cup) right yet the actual ingredients is cut into several columns

i dont really know how to deal with this. is there a more intelligent way of auto directing the conversion to split it the correct way?

if not any suggestions on how to convert it in a better way? perhaps a command to quick delete the separator (|) across all the column?

thx alot in advance

Z