EmacsWiki: Replace Garbage Chars (original) (raw)
The below is not textbook elisp, but it works, is easily understandable, and so too is easy to modify and add other “characters” to. As written below, it will replace a non-latin1 character or set of characters with a latin1 equivalent. For example, a “” will show up in an emacs latin1 buffer as \222, making it a PITA to edit. The “—” character is an extraordinary rendition of an em-dash and appears in emacs (latin1 coding) as a long string of garbage characters. The elisp code below replaces it with “--”, the typical ASCII version of an em-dash.
This elisp is meant to be simple enough that elisp newbies can easily amend to include yet other garbage characters or even for completely different purposes. Just insert another line like all the replace-string... lines and edit the values between the double-quotes. The value in the first set of quotes is the (garbage) characters to search for and the characters within the second set of double-quotes is what to replace that with.
Pretty much this same elisp code can be used also for more quickly converting a regular ASCII file into a LaTeX or HTML file. For example, if you have a typical set of chars which signal the beginning of paragraph (like “\n\n”), you could insert another replace-string line to convert that to the appropriate LaTeX (or HTML or whatever) coding for “paragraph”. Such a set of replacements might be better organized into a separate (but similar) function however. Open Source == Your Choice.
(defun replace-garbage-chars () "Replace goofy MS and other garbage characters with latin1 equivalents." (interactive) (save-excursion ;save the current point (replace-string "΄" """ nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "“" """ nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "’" "'" nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "“" """ nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "—" "--" nil (point-min) (point-max)) ; multi-byte (replace-string "" "'" nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "" "'" nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "" """ nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "" """ nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "" """ nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "" """ nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "‘" """ nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "’" "'" nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "¡"" """ nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "¡" "..." nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string " " "..." nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "" " " nil (point-min) (point-max)) ; M-SPC (replace-string "" "`" nil (point-min) (point-max)) ; \221 (replace-string "" "'" nil (point-min) (point-max)) ; \222 (replace-string "" "``" nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "" "''" nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "" "*" nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "" "--" nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "" "--" nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string " " " " nil (point-min) (point-max)) ; M-SPC (replace-string "¡" """ nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "´" """ nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "»" "<<" nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "Ç" "'" nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "È" """ nil (point-min) (point-max)) (replace-string "é" "e" nil (point-min) (point-max)) ;; é (replace-string "ó" "-" nil (point-min) (point-max)) ))
Note that chars/strings within the first set of double-quotes in each pair of replace-string args appear in emacs as, e.g., “\221”. To enter these escaped numbers, e.g. “\221”, do C-q 2 2 1 RETURN.
Also, multi-byte strings such as the first should be toward the top of the list so that single-byte replacements don’t cut them up, making subsequent searches for them impossible.
To discover the code for a new (garbage) char to be replaced, put the point over it and do “C-x=”; the first code returned in the minibuffer tells you the escaped number you want to replace.
With this function in a file which is in a directory in the emacs path, and with this in my ~/.emacs:
(global-set-key "\C-cr" 'replace-garbage-chars)
doing C-cr in an emacs buffer performs the replacements without moving the point… exactly what I was looking for. Hope you find it useful too.
If you know of or find other garbage characters which you find frequently need to be cleaned out, post them below along with latin1 equivalents. Share the knowledge. It’s good karma. – KenFrCleveland
Since these pages are UTF-8 encoded, your code might not work when copied and pasted directly. To make it work, I think all you need to do is use octal escapes in string literals. Use code like the following:
(replace-string "\221" "`" nil (point-min) (point-max)) ; opening single quote (replace-string "\222" "'" nil (point-min) (point-max)) ; closing single quote
To convince yourself that this is indeed equivalent, consider (length "\221") → 1. :)