Query-replace in multiple LaTeX environments, narrowing each in turn

Question

I am trying to come up with a Elisp function that narrows a buffer to a certain LaTeX enviroment (table, figures, ...), does some query-replace-regexp inside the narrowing, then searches for the next occurrence of the environment and does the same, until the last occurrence of the environment.

I have come up with this:

(defun narrowtable ()
  "narrowing on table environment"
  (interactive)
  (beginning-of-buffer)
  (save-excursion  
    (search-forward "begin{table}")
    (LaTeX-narrow-to-environment) 
    (goto-char (point-min))
    (query-replace "X" "B"); Just some query-replace
    (widen)))

which works for fine the first occurence of {table}, but only for that.

I guess I misplaced save-excursion for this to work properly, or there is something other to improve?

Answer 1

I suggest you try something like this:

(defun narrowtable ()
  "Narrowing on table or figure environments."
  (interactive)
  (save-excursion
    (goto-char (point-min))
    (while (search-forward-regexp
            "\\\\begin{\\(?:table\\|figure\\)}\\(?:\\[[^]]*\\]\\)?" nil t)
      (LaTeX-narrow-to-environment)
      (query-replace "X" "B"); Just some query-replace
      (widen))))

Some comments:

1. Do not use beginning-of-buffer in Lisp code, use (goto-char (point-min)) instead
2. You were missing the loop for continuous forward search
3. I used search-forward-regexp in order to match the environments table and figure incl. an optional argument