Re: "C-a" the first character in each line?

[Joost Kremers]

Nikos Apostolakis wrote:
> Hello group,
>
> in the scratch buffer I did
>
> -----------------
> (while (search-forward-regexp "^\\(.\\)" nil t)
>   (replace-match "\% \1"))
[...]
> % ^A
> % ^Aaa 
> % ^Aoo
> % ^Aii
>
> where ^A stands for the character "C-a".
>
> What am I missing?

it's actually what you're inserting: \1 *is* ^A:

(string-match "\1" "abc
")

==> 3

so what you need to do is escape the backslash:

(replace-match "% \\1")

btw, you are aware of the function string-insert-rectangle?


-- 
Joost Kremers                                      joostkremers@yahoo.com
Selbst in die Unterwelt dringt durch Spalten Licht
EN:SiS(9)