How do I unindent using IDLE (Python gui)

Question

I want to write the following statment in IDLE (Python GUI)

>>> if x == 0:
...      x = 0
...      print('Negative changed to zero')
... elif x == 0:

How can I get the unindention for the elif statment ?

Some additional facts:

I tried backspace and shift + tab, that doesn't help.
Runing on Windows.

Thanks.

Sorry, you should just use backspace, thing is that ">>>" does not intent on indentation. That means that in:

>>> if x == 54:
         x = 4
elif y = 4:
         y = 6

elif is just as indented as the if statment.

Sorry to waste your time..., although you can blame the IDE for making an un-selfexplanitory UI.

What have you tried? Backspace? Shift-tab? What platform are you using? Mac OS X, Windows and some Linux boxes have different keyboards. When you clicked on the Help menu, what did you find there? — S.Lott, Oct 22 '09 at 22:23
Question for you or any bystander: how do you get the ... for your continuation lines? I've never seen IDLE do that, nor can I find an option to turn it on. Yet I've seen it in a few Python postings. — Mark Ransom, Oct 22 '09 at 23:16

chaos95 · Answer 1 · 2017-04-28T03:31:51.177

23

Ctrl+[ should do the trick for unindenting.

Conversely, you can indent with Ctrl+], but IDLE generally handles indenting much better than unindenting.

edited Apr 28 '17 at 03:31

answered Oct 22 '09 at 22:25

chaos95

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don't know why it was downvoted, works fine on windows. I guess it's probably option-] on mac or something, – Gordon Gustafson Oct 22 '09 at 23:41
1

I came here with the question "How do i un-indent blocks of code" and this (`Ctrl-[`) is exactly the right answer. – Martin F Feb 29 '16 at 00:40
Works for me, but switched tab indenting to spaces. So you need to reprogram your head to use Ctrl+] instead of Tab. – andrew pate Aug 18 '18 at 17:10
2

Works only on English keyboard, e.g. on the German keyboard there is no direkt `[`. – perhelion Jan 05 '20 at 21:02

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 10 '16 at 11:58

4

ctrl + [ in Windows

command + [ in Mac

answered Feb 10 '16 at 11:58

rainy

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This is the default key combo. You can also change key assignments in the options to use Shift-Tab or whatever you like: http://stackoverflow.com/a/790788/60422 – rakslice Jul 03 '16 at 21:27

Mark Ransom · Answer 3 · 2009-10-22T23:13:47.603

2

Backspace works for me.

If you go to Options->Configure IDLE and click on the Keys tab, what options are selected? It might make a difference - I have IDLE Classic Windows.

edited Oct 22 '09 at 23:13

answered Oct 22 '09 at 22:27

Mark Ransom

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 22 '09 at 22:25

1

Try typing it like this. You'll notice the cursor moves to the start of the line after the pass

>>> if x == 0:
        x = 0
        print('Negative changed to zero')
        pass
elif x == 0:
    print('other stuff')

answered Oct 22 '09 at 22:25

John La Rooy

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 22 '09 at 23:38

If, as you say, you're on Windows, you ought to check out the interactive IDE that comes with Mark Hammond's PyWin32. It's available for all versions of Python including 2.6 and 3.1

It has user settable syntax coloring, code completion, automatic indent/dedent, and all the other features of IDLE while being generally slicker, faster and smoother operating and scrolling, etc. It also has a built-in debugger, although I don't use it enough to recommend it.

In addition it makes interactive input of compound statements more like the Python command line window in that it puts three dots (or more precisely, the value of sys.ps2) in front of continuiation lines:

>>> if x < 0:
...     x = 0
...     print('Negative changed to zero')
... elif:

The tab key inserts the recommended 4 spaces (user configurable) and backspace will backup and delete 4 spaces so it looks like real tabs.

I've used PyWin32 since Python version 1.5 and can't praise it highly enough.

How do I unindent using IDLE (Python gui)

5 Answers5

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