| [ < ] | [ > ] | [ << ] | [ Up ] | [ >> ] | [Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |
30.13.9 Conversion Between Plain Text and Tables
The command table-capture captures plain text in a region and
turns it into a table. Unlike table-recognize (see section Table Recognition), the original text does not have a table appearance but
may hold a logical table structure. For example, some elements
separated by known patterns form a two dimensional structure which can
be turned into a table.
Here's an example of data that table-capture can operate on.
The numbers are horizontally separated by a comma and vertically
separated by a newline character.
1, 2, 3, 4 5, 6, 7, 8 , 9, 10 |
Invoking M-x table-capture on that text produces this table:
+-----+-----+-----+-----+ |1 |2 |3 |4 | +-----+-----+-----+-----+ |5 |6 |7 |8 | +-----+-----+-----+-----+ | |9 |10 | | +-----+-----+-----+-----+ |
The conversion uses ‘,’ for the column delimiter and newline for a row delimiter, cells are left justified, and minimum cell width is 5.
The command table-release does the opposite of
table-capture. It releases a table by removing the table frame
and cell borders. This leaves the table contents as plain text. One
of the useful applications of table-capture and
table-release is to edit a text in layout. Look at the
following three paragraphs (the latter two are indented with header
lines):
‘table-capture’ is a powerful command, but mastering its
power requires some practice. Here are some things it can do:
Parse Cell Items By using column delimiter regular
expression and raw delimiter regular
expression, it parses the specified text
area and extracts cell items from
non-table text and then forms a table out
of them.
Capture Text Area When no delimiters are specified it
creates a single cell table. The text in
the specified region is placed in that
cell.
|
Applying table-capture to a region containing the above three
paragraphs, with empty strings for column delimiter regexp and row
delimiter regexp, creates a table with a single cell like the
following one.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ |‘table-capture’ is a powerful command, but mastering its | |power requires some practice. Here are some things it can do: | | | |Parse Cell Items By using column delimiter regular | | expression and raw delimiter regular | | expression, it parses the specified text | | area and extracts cell items from | | non-table text and then forms a table out | | of them. | | | |Capture Text Area When no delimiters are specified it | | creates a single cell table. The text in | | the specified region is placed in that | | cell. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ |
By splitting the cell appropriately we now have a table consisting of paragraphs occupying its own cell. Each cell can now be edited independently without affecting the layout of other cells.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ |‘table-capture’ is a powerful command, but mastering its | |power requires some practice. Here are some things it can do: | +---------------------+-------------------------------------------+ |Parse Cell Items |By using column delimiter regular | | |expression and raw delimiter regular | | |expression, it parses the specified text | | |area and extracts cell items from | | |non-table text and then forms a table out | | |of them. | +---------------------+-------------------------------------------+ |Capture Text Area |When no delimiters are specified it | | |creates a single cell table. The text in | | |the specified region is placed in that | | |cell. | +---------------------+-------------------------------------------+ |
By applying table-release, which does the opposite process, the
contents become once again plain text. table-release works as
a companion command to table-capture.
| [ < ] | [ > ] | [ << ] | [ Up ] | [ >> ] | [Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |