Question

Given delimited data in the following format, how can I insert and delete columns?

abc|efg|123|xyz123abc|yes
xxx|bbb|cc|ddd|no

Say, for example, that I wanted to add a 3rd column with a default value of 1 and remove the 4th column so the data would look like this:

abc|efg|1|123|yes
xxx|bbb|1|cc|no

I was looking into org-mode tables as a starting point, however it puts extra spaces around the data.

| abc | efg | 123 | xyz123abc |
| xxx | bbb | cc  | ddd       |
|     |     |     |           |

Answer 1

Well I just found out how to import data into SES (there are no “ses-import” functions, but it turns out you can simply yank tab-separated data), so this answer is even simpler than using table-capture 🙂 (unless your data contains tabs, in which case you’ll need to work around that).

SES is an actual spreadsheet application within Emacs. See its info node for details:
C-hidm ses RET, or M-: (info "ses") RET

To process the data:

1. Convert your original data to TSV with, say, M-%|RETTABRET!
2. Kill that text (e.g. select region, then C-w)
3. Create a temporary buffer and change to ses-mode: C-xb *ses* RET
   M-x ses-mode RET
   (and of course, C-hm for a description of ses-mode, and its keybindings)
4. Yank the data into the spreadsheet: C-y
5. Move point to the column to delete, and kill it with M-k
6. Copy the result back to the kill ring in TSV format: C-xhxt
   (i.e. mark-whole-buffer + ses-export-tsv)
7. Kill the *ses* buffer with C-xkRET
8. Yank the modified TSV data back into the original buffer with C-y
9. Convert the tabs back to |s with M-%TABRET|RET!

Caveat: I’m actually having issues yanking into SES under my standard config, but this process works fine under emacs -q. YMMV.