Emacs: Insert A to Z Vertically 📜

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

Here's a command that inserts letters a to z, vertically in a column. It can also insert any sequence of Unicode characters.

(defun xah-insert-column-az ()
  "Insert letters A to Z vertically, similar to `rectangle-number-lines'.
The commpand prompt for a start char, and number of chars to insert.
The start char can be any char in Unicode.

URL `http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/emacs_insert-alphabets.html'
Created: 2013-06-12
Version: 2026-01-06"
  (interactive)
  (let ((xstartChar (string-to-char (read-string "Start char: " "a")))
        (xmax (string-to-number (read-string "How many: " "26")))
        (xcolpos (- (point) (pos-bol))))
    (dotimes (xi xmax)
      (progn
        (insert-char (+ xi xstartChar))
        (forward-line)
        (beginning-of-line)
        (forward-char xcolpos)))))

Emacs, Comment, Uncomment, Rectangle Edit