limit-of-search to apply search-forward to just current paragraph

Question

The search-forward function takes four arguments:

(search-forward "target-string"
                limit-of-search
                what-to-do-if-search-fails
                repeat-count)

The second argument (limit-of-search) bounds the search. it is specified as a position in the buffer. In this case, the search can go to the end of the buffer, so no bound is set and the second argument is nil.

How to set it to just search until the end of the current paragraph?

https://emacs.stackexchange.com/tags/elisp/info – Drew Mar 24 '22 at 15:26 — Drew, Mar 24 '22 at 15:26

dalanicolai · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-24T12:43:16.863

1

Although it seems not be officially documented, we find from this thread that thing-at-point can be used with paragraph.

Therefore, you can simply use (cdr (bounds-of-thing-at-point 'paragraph)).

For example:

(while (search-forward ". "
                       (cdr (bounds-of-thing-at-point 'paragraph))
                       t)
  (delete-backward-char 1)
  (insert "\n\n"))

edited Mar 24 '22 at 12:43

answered Mar 24 '22 at 09:28

dalanicolai

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I did not get that. Could you write the exact syntax? My function is: (while (search-forward ". " nil t) (delete-backward-char 1) (insert "\n\n")). Where shall I add that code? Thanks! – Emmanuel Goldstein Mar 24 '22 at 12:24
Got it, thanks, it is not working for some reason. It is doing nothing to my text. – Emmanuel Goldstein Mar 24 '22 at 12:31
This is what I am using: (while (search-forward ". " (end-of-thing 'paragraph) t) (delete-backward-char 1) (insert "\n\n")) – Emmanuel Goldstein Mar 24 '22 at 12:31
1

Sorry, my answer is wrong, I did not check it correctly. – dalanicolai Mar 24 '22 at 12:34
1

I have corrected it... (while checking the 'wrong answer', it seemed that it stopped searching at the end of the paragraph, but of course it just moved the point there. I was a little sloppy). – dalanicolai Mar 24 '22 at 12:38
Thank you!!! It does work now! – Emmanuel Goldstein Mar 24 '22 at 12:43

limit-of-search to apply search-forward to just current paragraph

1 Answers1