Emacs: Move Cursor to Bracket 🚀

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

Move Cursor to Bracket

Here are commands to move cursor to any open/close brackets. They are extremely useful when working with computer language source code such as Python, JavaScript, PowerShell, Golang, etc.

put this in your Emacs Init File:

(defvar xah-brackets '("“”" "()" "[]" "{}" "<>" "＜＞" "（）" "［］" "｛｝" "⦅⦆" "〚〛" "⦃⦄" "‹›" "«»" "「」" "〈〉" "《》" "【】" "〔〕" "⦗⦘" "『』" "〖〗" "〘〙" "｢｣" "⟦⟧" "⟨⟩" "⟪⟫" "⟮⟯" "⟬⟭" "⌈⌉" "⌊⌋" "⦇⦈" "⦉⦊" "❛❜" "❝❞" "❨❩" "❪❫" "❴❵" "❬❭" "❮❯" "❰❱" "❲❳" "〈〉" "⦑⦒" "⧼⧽" "﹙﹚" "﹛﹜" "﹝﹞" "⁽⁾" "₍₎" "⦋⦌" "⦍⦎" "⦏⦐" "⁅⁆" "⸢⸣" "⸤⸥" "⟅⟆" "⦓⦔" "⦕⦖" "⸦⸧" "⸨⸩" "｟｠")
 "A list of strings, each element is a string of 2 chars, the left bracket and a matching right bracket.
Used by `xah-select-text-in-quote' and others.")

(defconst xah-left-brackets
  (mapcar (lambda (x) (substring x 0 1)) xah-brackets)
  "List of left bracket chars. Each element is a string.")

(defconst xah-right-brackets
  (mapcar (lambda (x) (substring x 1 2)) xah-brackets)
  "List of right bracket chars. Each element is a string.")

(defun xah-backward-left-bracket ()
  "Move cursor to the previous occurrence of left bracket.
The list of brackets to jump to is defined by `xah-left-brackets'.

URL `http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/emacs_navigating_keys_for_brackets.html'
Version: 2015-10-01"
  (interactive)
  (re-search-backward (regexp-opt xah-left-brackets) nil t))

(defun xah-forward-right-bracket ()
  "Move cursor to the next occurrence of right bracket.
The list of brackets to jump to is defined by `xah-right-brackets'.

URL `http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/emacs_navigating_keys_for_brackets.html'
Version: 2015-10-01"
  (interactive)
  (re-search-forward (regexp-opt xah-right-brackets) nil t))

You should assign them keys. I suggest one of the following key pairs:

〔see Emacs Keys: Define Key〕

Emacs, Work with Brackets