Columns Manipulation Help

Name:	Columns Manipulation
Version:	2.2
Last update:	2019-11-27 14:12:48

Introduction

The Columns Manipulation package is a feature which allows you to manipulate the columns of any tabulated block of text, i-e a series of lines in which items are separated by a specific symbol. By default, the field separator is a tabulation but one can specify any other character (like a colon, a semicolon, a comma, an endash etc. or even the space character).
Once the package is activated, it adds a submenu called Columns to the Text menu. The items of this submenu are explained below. Basic manipulations are copying, inserting, appending, twiddling, deleting, sorting, numbering, equalizing and justifying columns.

Activation

To activate the Columns Manipulation feature, go to Alpha ↣ Global Setup ↣ Features and select the Columns Manipulation checkbox.

Basics

Columns selection

To select one or several columns, you must hilite a region going from the first cell you want to select to the last one by mouse dragging. The start and end positions may be anywhere in a cell, the entire cell will be considered anyway. This is illustrated by the following image:
region selection

In this example, the first cell is (1,2) (first row, second cell) and the last one is (3,3) (third row, third cell) so any column manipulation will act on columns 2 to 3. No matter what is actually hilited, the package will consider only the columns located between the start and end positions.
You can also use rectangular selection, i-e drag the mouse while pressing the Option (⌥) key. This is illustrated by the following image:

This selects the exact same columns as before. In both cases, you have selected:

cd ef
kl mn
st uv

Here is another example (from Romeo and Juliet). We suppose here that each word is separated by a tabulation (any single character can be chosen as a separator, even the space character; see below):

Gallop	apace,	you	fiery-footed	steeds,
Towards	Phoebus'	lodging;	such	a	waggoner
As	Phaethon	would	whip	you	to	the	west,
And	bring	in	cloudy	night	immediately.

Put the cursor in the word 'you' (first row, third word), press the mouse button and, without releasing it, go to the word 'whip' in the third row, then release: you have selected the following region

    you	fiery-footed
    lodging;	such
    would	whip

even though all the words from 'you' to 'whip' are hilited. We have thus selected columns 3-4 and rows 1-3.

Columns separator

It must NECESSARILY be a SINGLE character. The default is the tabulation character \t. To change the current separator symbol, use the Columns Separator command in the Columns Utilities submenu.
For instance, when working in Latex mode, you might want to choose '&' as a separator for \array or \table environments:

     \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|}
 	\hline
     you & fiery-footed \\
     lodging; & such \\
     would & whip \\
 	\hline
     \end{tabular}

You can even use the 'space' character as a separator.

Caveat

the cursor can be positioned anywhere in a "cell": the entire column will always be selected, that is to say the entire text of the cells is selected no matter where the cursor is positionned within the cell.
columns are numbered starting from 1 (see the messages in the status bar).
hiliting must still be there if you want to apply a manipulation like copying, inserting, appending, twiddling, deleting columns.
as a separator, the tabulation character is represented by \t.
all the actions are undoable (with cmd-Z).

More examples

You can now select a region and experiment: here are some examples applied to the previous selection. Deleting

Gallop	apace,	steeds,
Towards	Phoebus'	a	waggoner
As	Phaethon	you	to	the	west,
And	bring	in	cloudy	night	immediately.

Copying, selecting the first two lines and appending

Gallop	apace,	you	fiery-footed	steeds,	you	fiery-footed
Towards	Phoebus'	lodging;	such	a	waggoner	lodging;	such
As	Phaethon	would	whip	you	to	the	west,
And	bring	in	cloudy	night	immediately.

Copying, selecting the second column and inserting

Gallop	you	fiery-footed	apace,	you	fiery-footed	steeds,
Towards	lodging;	such	Phoebus'	lodging;	such	a	waggoner
As	would	whip	Phaethon	would	whip	you	to	the	west,
And	bring	in	cloudy	night	immediately.

Twiddling

Gallop	apace,	fiery-footed	you	steeds,
Towards	Phoebus'	such	lodging;	a	waggoner
As	Phaethon	whip	would	you	to	the	west,
And	bring	in	cloudy	night	immediately.

Sorting Columns

Gallop	apace,	lodging;	such	steeds,
Towards	Phoebus'	would	whip	a	waggoner
As	Phaethon	you	fiery-footed	you	to	the	west,
And	bring	in	cloudy	night	immediately.

Selecting the first two lines and reverse sorting rows

you	steeds,	apace,	Gallop	fiery-footed
waggoner	Towards	such	Phoebus'	lodging;	a
As	Phaethon	would	whip	you	to	the	west,
And	bring	in	cloudy	night	immediately.

Selecting all four lines and inserting rows numbers

1	Gallop	apace,	you	fiery-footed	steeds,
2	Towards	Phoebus'	lodging;	such	a	waggoner
3	As	Phaethon	would	whip	you	to	the	west,
4	And	bring	in	cloudy	night	immediately.

etc. etc.

Menu Items

All manipulation commands assume that you have already selected columns as explained before.

Main columns menu

Copy Columns

Copy the selected columns in the MacOS system pasteboard. Note that if no region has been selected or hilited, the entire line containing the cursor will be copied.

Insert Columns

Insert columns from the pasteboard BEFORE the first selected column.

Append Columns

Append columns contained in the pasteboard to the right of the selected lines. The procedure will append as much as it can: if you have selected a region with less rows than the material contained in the pasteboard, it will ignore the remaining lines.

Cut Columns

Delete the selected columns and send a copy to the pasteboard so that they may be pasted, inserted, appended elsewhere. All the columns to the right of the selection will be shifted left.

Delete Columns

Delete the selected columns.

Twiddle Columns

Exchange the leftmost and right most columns of your selection. Note that there must be enough elements on each row to allow twiddling: if not, the procedure will fail and send an alert. This can easily been solved by using the Complete Rows item.

Transpose Columns

Swap columns and rows (as in matrix transposition). For instance:

ab    cd    ef
gh    ij    kl

becomes

ab    gh
cd    ij
ef    kl

All rows must have the same number of cells. The entire row is transposed even if you select only a portion.

Columns formatting submenu

Equalize Columns: This command calculates the maximum length of each of the selected columns and appends the necessary amount of blank space so that each column has a unique width. This allows a perfect vertical alignment to make selections easier. Equalizing columns makes it very easy to use rectangular hiliting: select a region with the mouse holding the Option (⌥) key down.
Unequalize Columns: This does the opposite of the previous command: any leading or trailing blank spaces in the cells will be trimed.
Complete Rows: In case all the rows do not have the same "length" (i-e number of cells), this procedure will add empty cells to the incomplete rows.
Right Justify: To right justify the selected columns.
Center: To center the selected columns.
Left Justify: To left justify the selected columns.
Insert Rows Numbers: Insert the row number at the beginning of the selected lines. Numbering starts at 1. Numbers are separated by the current separator and constitute a separate column.
Insert Numbers From...: Same as the previous command except that you are prompted to choose the starting number. The last number reached in a previous numbering is proposed as a default choice.

Columns sorting submenu

Sort Columns: Sort the selected columns in increasing order, using dictionary comparison (1 before 11 before 2). Sorting is case insensitive. If several columns are included in the selected region, sorting applies to the left one.
Reverse Sort Columns: Sort the selected columns in decreasing order, using dictionary comparison. Sorting is case insensitive. If several columns are included in the selected region, sorting applies to the left one.
Num Sort Columns: Sort the selected columns in increasing order, using numerical comparison (1 before 2 before 11). If several columns are included in the selected region, sorting applies to the left one.
Reverse Num Sort Columns: Sort the selected columns in decreasing order, using numerical comparison. If several columns are included in the selected region, sorting applies to the left one.
Sort Rows: Sort the selected rows in increasing dictionary order
Reverse Sort Rows: Sort the selected rows in decreasing dictionary order
Num Sort Rows: Sort the selected rows in increasing numerical order
Reverse Num Sort Rows: Sort the selected rows in decreasing numerical order

Columns utilities submenu

Columns Separator: Change the character considered as columns separator. It has to be a SINGLE character. It is by default the tabulation character represented by \t. This menu item allows to do temporary changes (as long as you do not quit Alpha). To change the columns separator permanently go to the Columns Manipulation Preferences.
Show Preferences…: Display the preferences dialog.
Display Bindings: Brings a window with information about the key bindings available when the Columns Manipulation package is active. See below.
Columns Tutorial: Brings a window with a tutorial file.

Key Bindings

All the key bindings use a Ctrl-C (c for columns !) prefix. Hit ⌃C, release, then hit a letter as indicated in the following table:

ctrl-C A	append columns
ctrl-C B	display bindings info
ctrl-C C	copy columns
ctrl-C D	delete columns
ctrl-C E	equalize columns (left justified)
ctrl-C F	insert rows numbers from a given value
ctrl-C I	insert columns
ctrl-C M	center columns (m for middle)
ctrl-C N	number rows
ctrl-C O	sort columns in increasing order
ctrl-C P	complete rows
ctrl-C R	right justify columns
ctrl-C S	change the columns separator
ctrl-C T	transpose columns and rows
ctrl-C U	unequalize columns
ctrl-C W	twiddle columns
ctrl-C X	extract columns and copy to the scrap

If you'd like another prefix than C, see the Prefix Binding Char preference.

Preferences

The Text ↣ Columns ↣ Columns Utilities ↣ Show Preferences… item displays a dialog that allows you to set some preferences:

the Prefix Binding Char variable lets you select the letter to use for the key bindings prefix.
the Columns Separator variable allows you to set the default character used to separate columns. It must be a single character.

Known problems

Please report any problem or bug you encounter to Alpha's Bug Tracker.

License and Disclaimer

Copyright (c) 2000-2019, Bernard Desgraupes.
All rights reserved.
The Columns Manipulation package is free software and distributed under the terms of the new BSD license:
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the name of Bernard Desgraupes nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL BERNARD DESGRAUPES BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.