Emacs: Delete Whitespace around Cursor 🚀

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

In emacs, the following commands lets you delete whitespaces around cursor.

Here's a command that combine most of them into one.

put this in your Emacs Init File:

(defun xah-delete-blank-lines ()
  "Delete all newline around cursor.

URL `http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/emacs_shrink_whitespace.html'
Version: 2018-04-02"
  (interactive)
  (let (xp3 xp4)
          (skip-chars-backward "\n")
          (setq xp3 (point))
          (skip-chars-forward "\n")
          (setq xp4 (point))
          (delete-region xp3 xp4)))

(defun xah-fly-delete-spaces ()
  "Delete space, tab, IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE (U+3000) around cursor.
Version: 2019-06-13"
  (interactive)
  (let (xp1 xp2)
    (skip-chars-forward " \t　")
    (setq xp2 (point))
    (skip-chars-backward " \t　")
    (setq xp1 (point))
    (delete-region xp1 xp2)))

(defun xah-shrink-whitespaces ()
  "Remove whitespaces around cursor .

Shrink neighboring spaces, then newlines, then spaces again, leaving one space or newline at each step, till no more white space.

URL `http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/emacs_shrink_whitespace.html'
Version: 2014-10-21 2021-11-26 2021-11-30 2023-07-12"
  (interactive)
  (let ((xeol-count 0)
        (xp0 (point))
        xp1  ; whitespace begin
        xp2  ; whitespace end
        (xcharBefore (char-before))
        (xcharAfter (char-after))
        xspace-neighbor-p)

    (setq xspace-neighbor-p (or (eq xcharBefore 32) (eq xcharBefore 9) (eq xcharAfter 32) (eq xcharAfter 9)))

    (skip-chars-backward " \n\t　")
    (setq xp1 (point))
    (goto-char xp0)
    (skip-chars-forward " \n\t　")
    (setq xp2 (point))
    (goto-char xp1)
    (while (search-forward "\n" xp2 t)
      (setq xeol-count (1+ xeol-count)))
    (goto-char xp0)
    (cond
     ((eq xeol-count 0)
      (if (> (- xp2 xp1) 1)
          (progn
            (delete-horizontal-space) (insert " "))
        (progn (delete-horizontal-space))))
     ((eq xeol-count 1)
      (if xspace-neighbor-p
          (xah-fly-delete-spaces)
        (progn (xah-delete-blank-lines) (insert " "))))
     ((eq xeol-count 2)
      (if xspace-neighbor-p
          (xah-fly-delete-spaces)
        (progn
          (xah-delete-blank-lines)
          (insert "\n"))))
     ((> xeol-count 2)
      (if xspace-neighbor-p
          (xah-fly-delete-spaces)
        (progn
          (goto-char xp2)
          (search-backward "\n")
          (delete-region xp1 (point))
          (insert "\n"))))
     (t (progn
          (message "nothing done. logic error 40873. shouldn't reach here"))))))

Give it a easy key. [see Emacs Keys: Define Key]