35.5 Motion and Syntax

This section describes functions for moving across characters that have certain syntax classes.

function skip-syntax-forward syntaxes \&optional limit

This function moves point forward across characters having syntax classes mentioned in syntaxes (a string of syntax class characters). It stops when it encounters the end of the buffer, or position limit (if specified), or a character it is not supposed to skip.

If syntaxes starts with ‘^’, then the function skips characters whose syntax is not in syntaxes.

The return value is the distance traveled, which is a nonnegative integer.

function skip-syntax-backward syntaxes \&optional limit

This function moves point backward across characters whose syntax classes are mentioned in syntaxes. It stops when it encounters the beginning of the buffer, or position limit (if specified), or a character it is not supposed to skip.

If syntaxes starts with ‘^’, then the function skips characters whose syntax is not in syntaxes.

The return value indicates the distance traveled. It is an integer that is zero or less.

function backward-prefix-chars

This function moves point backward over any number of characters with expression prefix syntax. This includes both characters in the expression prefix syntax class, and characters with the ‘p’ flag.