Next: Comparing Text, Previous: Near Point, Up: Text
This section describes two functions that allow a Lisp program to convert any portion of the text in the buffer into a string.
This function returns a string containing a copy of the text of the region defined by positions start and end in the current buffer. If the arguments are not positions in the accessible portion of the buffer,
buffer-substring
signals anargs-out-of-range
error.It is not necessary for start to be less than end; the arguments can be given in either order. But most often the smaller argument is written first.
If the text being copied has any text properties, these are copied into the string along with the characters they belong to. See Text Properties. However, overlays (see Overlays) in the buffer and their properties are ignored, not copied.
---------- Buffer: foo ---------- This is the contents of buffer foo ---------- Buffer: foo ---------- (buffer-substring 1 10) => "This is t" (buffer-substring (point-max) 10) => "he contents of buffer foo "
This is like
buffer-substring
, except that it does not copy text properties, just the characters themselves. See Text Properties.
This function returns the contents of the entire accessible portion of the current buffer as a string. It is equivalent to
(buffer-substring (point-min) (point-max))---------- Buffer: foo ---------- This is the contents of buffer foo ---------- Buffer: foo ---------- (buffer-string) => "This is the contents of buffer foo "
Return the thing around or next to point, as a string.
The argument thing is a symbol which specifies a kind of syntactic entity. Possibilities include
symbol
,list
,sexp
,defun
,filename
,url
,word
,sentence
,whitespace
,line
,page
, and others.---------- Buffer: foo ---------- Gentlemen may cry ``Pea-!-ce! Peace!,'' but there is no peace. ---------- Buffer: foo ---------- (thing-at-point 'word) => "Peace" (thing-at-point 'line) => "Gentlemen may cry ``Peace! Peace!,''\n" (thing-at-point 'whitespace) => nil