Re: [O] feature request for empty blocks in customized agenda

[Kyle Meyer]

Hi,

Arun Persaud <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi
>
> I just started using a customized agenda with many blocks and some of my
> blocks are often empty. However, org-mode still insert the header and
> the separator between blocks. Is there a way to skip empty blocks
> completely?

Not that I'm aware of.

> I had a quick look at org-agenda.el and it seems that it directly
> inserts text, e.g. the header, into the buffer, before it even knows how
> many items it added. I guess one could remember point at the beginning,
> count the items inserted and if that's 0, delete backwards to the saved
> point?
> My elisp knowledge is probably not good enough to add this though and it
> also seems one would have to add it at different location
> (org-agenda-list, org-agenda-todo, etc).
>
> I also checked org-agenda-compact-blocks, but that removes the separator
> from all blocks, which is not what I want.
>
> Any chance to get something like this added?

I'm not sure if someone will find this feature useful enough to
incorporate.  However, even if it doesn't get added, I think you can get
the behavior you want using org-agenda-finalize-hook.  Hopefully the
snippet below can be a useful starting point.

#+begin_src elisp
  (defun org-agenda-delete-empty-blocks ()
    "Remove empty agenda blocks.
  A block is identified as empty if there are fewer than 2
  non-empty lines in the block (excluding the line with
  `org-agenda-block-separator' characters)."
    (when org-agenda-compact-blocks
      (user-error "Cannot delete empty compact blocks"))
    (setq buffer-read-only nil)
    (save-excursion
      (goto-char (point-min))
      (let* ((blank-line-re "^\\s-*$")
             (content-line-count (if (looking-at-p blank-line-re) 0 1))
             (start-pos (point))
             (block-re (format "%c\\{10,\\}" org-agenda-block-separator)))
        (while (and (not (eobp)) (forward-line))
          (cond
           ((looking-at-p block-re)
            (when (< content-line-count 2)
              (delete-region start-pos (1+ (point-at-bol))))
            (setq start-pos (point))
            (forward-line)
            (setq content-line-count (if (looking-at-p blank-line-re) 0 1)))
           ((not (looking-at-p blank-line-re))
            (setq content-line-count (1+ content-line-count)))))
        (when (< content-line-count 2)
          (delete-region start-pos (point-max)))
        (goto-char (point-min))
        ;; The above strategy can leave a separator line at the beginning
        ;; of the buffer.
        (when (looking-at-p block-re)
          (delete-region (point) (1+ (point-at-eol))))))
    (setq buffer-read-only t))

  (add-hook 'org-agenda-finalize-hook #'org-agenda-delete-empty-blocks)
#+end_src

--
Kyle