How to duplicate text but increment a numeric part of a name?

Question

Say that I have rect1 one and I'll multiply it 3 times by yanking.

let rect1 = Rectangle {
    width: 10,
    height: 40,
    }
    
    let rect1 = Rectangle {
    width: 10,
    height: 40,
    }
    
    let rect1 = Rectangle {
    width: 10,
    height: 40,

How can I obtain rect1, rect2, rect3 etc. instead of just repeating rect1?

In this particular situation, nothing will beat moving your cursor to the appropriate place, deleting the 1 and typing the appropriate replacement. But if you have ten or a hundred or a thousand copies of that (which you should not have: that's what arrays are for), it's a different story. — NickD, Feb 08 '21 at 14:30
I'm new to programming, and I ran into this issue many times. I understand your point, but I switched from vim to emacs basically because of such problems :D Maybe I've reached to the point write my own elisp script? o.O — zoldseges, Feb 08 '21 at 14:44
Writing a keyboard macro would be the next step up from just editing them all by hand. But as NickD said, there are ways to write your programs that don't require so much repetition. For example, you could have one variable that holds an array of Rectangles, rather than having three variables each holding one Rectangle. If you haven't learned about arrays yet, then just keep going until you do. — db48x, Feb 08 '21 at 15:57

gigiair · Answer 1 · 2021-02-15T21:39:53.033

query-replace-regexp can do the trick. Select the region you want for replacing and :

 C-M %  \brect1\b RET rect\,(1+ \#) RET !

for more information

(info "(emacs)Regexp Replacement")

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; A function for more comfort;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

(defun multiple-paste-renum(n renum paste )
  "Paste N copy of PASTE and renumber the string RENUM followed by digits
 from 1 to until the last"
  (interactive "nNumber repeats: \nsWord to be renumerate: \nsText or RET for the current kill-ring: ")
  (let ((text (if (string= "" paste) (substring-no-properties (current-kill 0))paste)))
  (insert (with-temp-buffer
            (dotimes (p n) (insert "\n" text "\n"))
            (goto-char (point-min))
            (let ((p 0))
            (while (search-forward-regexp (format "\\b%s[0-9]+\\b" renum) nil t)
              (replace-match (format "%s%d" renum (setq p (1+ p))))))
            (buffer-string)))))

I have composed a function which I hope corresponds to your desire. Just evaluate it (or in your init file if you want to keep it). You can activate it with M-x multiple-paste-renum or you can assign a key of your choice. Type the number of copies you want, the word you want to index, and the text. If the latter is in the kill-ting, just hit Enter. — gigiair, Feb 15 '21 at 21:35

How to duplicate text but increment a numeric part of a name?

1 Answers1