Is there a quick way to decrease the indentation of multiple lines in Python?

Question

I am a newbie to python programming. I find that decreasing the indentation of a block of codes in python is quite annoying. For example, given the following code snippet

for i in range(density):
   if i < 5:
      x, y = rnd(0,shape[1]//2)*2, rnd(0,shape[0]//2)*2
      Z[y,x] = 1 
      ....
      ....

If I comment the if statement, I have to decrease the indentation for lines in the if block one by one, is there a way that I can do this by one key stroke as I increase the indentation of a block of codes by selecting them and press the TAB key? I guess this is environment dependent, so could you please provide solutions to do so in Eclipse+Pydev, VIM, and other common editors?

It would depend editor to editor. You'd have to look into each one specifically. — atreat, Feb 18 '12 at 06:02
In Komodo and Visual Studio you select the lines and press Shift+Tab. — Gabe, Feb 18 '12 at 06:04
in this particullar case you could also increase the indent of the commented out "if" line. — yak, Feb 18 '12 at 09:22

score 68 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 16 '13 at 15:49

68

In vim, you select the block and then press the < key.

In Eclipse you select it and then press SHIFT + TAB.

Every code editor worth its salt has a one-key way to indent and dedent blocks.

edited Jan 16 '13 at 15:49

andr

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answered Feb 18 '12 at 06:02

Borealid

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Do you need any VIM configure file to make that work? @Borealid – sma Feb 18 '12 at 06:05
3

In IDLE (the IDE included with Python), `CTRL`+`[` dedents and `CTRL`+`]` indents. – Steven T. Snyder Feb 18 '12 at 06:18
Also `C-c <` for emacs (in python-mode) – blmoore Jan 16 '13 at 15:53
Selecting text then using the shift+tab shortcut also works if you're using the Python editor built into Canopy on Windows. – ncRubert Jul 21 '15 at 22:02
Is there any way to configure Eclipse to use something instead of `SHIFT` + `TAB` ? I'd like to make it use `Ctrl` + `[` like Sublime uses... – ArtOfWarfare Sep 11 '15 at 17:48

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 18 '12 at 12:51

8

You could also replace the if statement with:

if True:  # if i < 5:

and leave everything else alone - no indent/dedent to undo later.

answered Feb 18 '12 at 12:51

PaulMcG

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score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 16 '13 at 15:48

3

Perhaps late for your case, but if useful for others:

SHIFT + TAB will do unindent for the selected text in Eclipse.

edited Jan 16 '13 at 15:48

andr

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answered Jan 16 '13 at 15:22

sanja7s

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 14 '12 at 07:10

1

Use Preferences-Pydev-Editor settings uncheck change tabs to spaces. It makes detent errors and your problem. And test other options like 4 space tab, 8 space tab and so on.

answered Sep 14 '12 at 07:10

42n4

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Is there a quick way to decrease the indentation of multiple lines in Python?

4 Answers4