How can I pass arguments to a function called interactively?

Question

Consider this:

(defun kill-arg-words (arg)
  "kill `arg' words ahead of you"
  (interactive)
  (kill-region (point)
               (progn (forward-word arg) (point)
                      )))

I want to call it as M-x kill-arg-words <RET> 5 <RET>, but instead, it does not provide me the option to type in arguments after the first <RET>. How can I enable this?

Does this answer your question? [What is the difference between a function and a command?](https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/3555/what-is-the-difference-between-a-function-and-a-command) — Drew, May 29 '23 at 00:46
There are also other duplicates, e.g. emacs.stackexchange.com/q/54602/ — Drew, May 29 '23 at 00:47

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 28 '23 at 22:47

In addition to specifying the arglist of the function, you have to declare where the args come from when it is called interactively.

(interactive) alone declares that an interactive call should supply no arguments. Use (interactive "n") to instead specify that when called interactively, it should first prompt for a number in the minibuffer and then supply it as the first argument.

You really should read the help message for it. Use C-h f to pull it up; it goes into some detail.

How can I pass arguments to a function called interactively?

1 Answers1