Question

Working with Python in Emacs if I want to add a try/except to a block of code, I often find that I am having to indent the whole block, line by line. In Emacs, how do you indent the whole block at once.

I am not an experienced Emacs user, but just find it is the best tool for working through ssh. I am using Emacs on the command line(Ubuntu), not as a gui, if that makes any difference.

Answer 1

If you are programming Python using Emacs, then you should probably be using python-mode. With python-mode, after marking the block of code,

C-c > or C-c C-l shifts the region 4 spaces to the right

C-c < or C-c C-r shifts the region 4 spaces to the left

If you need to shift code by two levels of indention, or some arbitary amount you can prefix the command with an argument:

C-u 8 C-c > shifts the region 8 spaces to the right

C-u 8 C-c < shifts the region 8 spaces to the left

Another alternative is to use M-x indent-rigidly which is bound to C-x TAB:

C-u 8 C-x TAB shifts the region 8 spaces to the right

C-u -8 C-x TAB shifts the region 8 spaces to the left

Also useful are the rectangle commands that operate on rectangles of text instead of lines of text.

For example, after marking a rectangular region,

C-x r o inserts blank space to fill the rectangular region (effectively shifting code to the right)

C-x r k kills the rectangular region (effectively shifting code to the left)

C-x r t prompts for a string to replace the rectangle with. Entering C-u 8 <space> will then enter 8 spaces.

PS. With Ubuntu, to make python-mode the default mode for all .py files, simply install the python-mode package.