Hi all,

At times I need to copy content of the current field or few fields around
the field in the current row. I realized that we do not have a function
that selects fields. We have function that blanks a field but not one that
selects. Please point me to the right function if I missed it.

But as I couldn't find anything like that, I came up with the below. Please
advise if there's a better way to do the same or if I this could be added
to org.

=====
(defun org-table-mark-field (n)
  "Mark the current table field.

If N is negative, select (- N) fields to the left of the current field,
including the current field.
If N >= 2, select (1- N) fields to the right of the current field,
including the current field.
If N is 0 or 1 (default), only the current field is selected."
  (interactive "p")
  (let ((bol-point (save-excursion
                     (beginning-of-line)
                     (point)))
        (bof-arg 1)
        (eof-arg 1)
        (p (point))
        bof-p)

    ;; Check if the point is already at the beginning of the current field.
    (when (looking-back "|\\s-*" bol-point)
      (setq bof-p t))

    ;; When selecting current field plus fields to the right
    (when (>= n 2)
      (setq eof-arg n))
    ;; When selecting current field plus fields to the left
    (when (<= n -1)
      (setq bof-arg (- n)))

    (org-table-beginning-of-field bof-arg)
    (when bof-p
      (org-table-next-field))
    (set-mark-command nil)
    (goto-char p)
    (org-table-end-of-field eof-arg)
    (exchange-point-and-mark)))
====

Using bind-key (use-package), I bind the above to S-SPC only as long as the
point is in a table. More on context-aware key bindings[1].

=====
(bind-keys
 :map org-mode-map
 :filter (org-at-table-p)
  ("S-SPC" . org-table-mark-field))
=====

[1]: http://endlessparentheses.com/define-context-aware-keys-in-emacs.html
-- 

-- 
Kaushal Modi