Re: Emacs insert empty string

[Kenneth Brun Nielsen]

On Mar 24, 10:49 am, Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyba...@Web.DE> wrote:
> Am 24.03.2011 um 02:46 schrieb Kenneth Brun Nielsen:
>
> > How can I insert an empty string?
>
> What is "an empty string?" Can you exactly and comprehensively  
> describe this? Is it defined in Wikipedia? And give us a few examples?

An empty string is the thing between the quotes here: "". My geek
level is not high enough to rephrase it further :)

An example is this command file consisting of 100001 commands:

---
command 1
command 2
..
command 100000
command 100001
---
Now I want to outcomment the first 1000 commands. I select the 1000
lines and use 'CTRL-x rt' for rectangle mode, and insert a "*" in
front of the first 1000 lines. Now my file looks like this:
---
*command 1
*command 2
..
*command 1000
command 1001
..
command 100000
command 100001
---
Now I "regret" outcommenting the commands 600-800. Again I select the
lines/columns of interest and use the 'CTRL-x rt' command and remove
the "*" column (i.e. replace the first column with an empty string)
for that specific lines, targetting a file like this:
---
*command 1
..
*command 599
command 600
..
command 800
*command 801
..
*command 1000
command 1001
..
command 100000
command 100001
---

However this last step doesn't work as intended. Because I can not
replace with an empty string. Simply pressing "Enter" will choose the
default string, which is the equivalent to the previously inserted
string "*".

Does my explanation make sense?

/Kenneth