Emacs: Select Text Block 🚀

By Xah Lee. Date: 2023-11-14.

Select Current Block

This lets you select current block of text. (a block here is text between empty lines.)

If there's already a selection, extend selection downward by block.

(defun xah-select-block ()
  "Select the current/next block plus 1 blankline.
If region is active, extend selection downward by block.

URL `http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/emacs_select_text_block.html'
Version: 2019-12-26 2021-08-13 2023-11-14"
  (interactive)
  (if (region-active-p)
      (re-search-forward "\n[ \t]*\n[ \t]*\n*" nil :move)
    (progn
      (skip-chars-forward " \n\t")
      (when (re-search-backward "\n[ \t]*\n" nil :move)
        (goto-char (match-end 0)))
      (push-mark (point) t t)
      (re-search-forward "\n[ \t]*\n" nil :move))))