Delete 4-spaces as a single tab

Question

I asked another question yesterday but this bothers me a little. I use 4 spaces as indentation for programming (ShellScript, C and Python, mostly). When I want to delete the 4 spaces, I had to do one by one. When I was using vim, I didn't have to do in that way.

What I want to set up is that, when you put the cursor at the beginning of the first word after indentation and press DEL, it deletes the 4 spaces at once.

An example:

int main () {
    ▮int a = 0;
    if (a = 0) {
        printf("Hello!");
    }
    return 0;
}


int main () {
▮int a = 0;
    if (a = 0) {
        printf("Hello!");
    }
    return 0;
}

(Suppose that ▮ is with the i).

Is it possible to do that in emacs?

---

Result of doing C-u C-x = on the indentation:

Answer 1

I have tested in emacs -Q that C-u <backspace> will delete 4 spaces backwards.

Equivalent bindings would be:

• M-4 <backspace>
• C-4 <backspace>

Before

int main () {
    ▮int a = 0;

(▮ represents point)

Do C-u <backspace> or C-u DEL.

After

int main () {
▮int a = 0;

By default C-u represents a repetition or 4 for most commands (usually navigation related).

---

Update

To delete 4 space to the right of the cursor, do C-u C-d instead.

Before

int main () {
▮    int a = 0;

(▮ represents point)

Do C-u C-d.

After

int main () {
▮int a = 0;

---

On emacs 25.1.50.x (emacs master branch as of now), <backspace> or DEL is bound to the backward-delete-char-untabify command by default.