Remove Every Source Block Results

Sometimes you accidentally evaluate your entire Org-Mode document resulting in result blocks everywhere. Maybe you can’t easily revert the change so you are stuck with a ton of code you don’t need. Here is a function to remove all of your result blocks. It is pretty good for documents that you probably never wanted to evaluate in the first place:

(defconst help/org-special-pre "^\s*#[+]")
(defun help/org-2every-src-block (fn)
  "Visit every Source-Block and evaluate `FN'."
  (interactive)
  (save-excursion
    (goto-char (point-min))
    (let ((case-fold-search t))
      (while (re-search-forward (concat help/org-special-pre "BEGIN_SRC") nil t)
        (let ((element (org-element-at-point)))
          (when (eq (org-element-type element) 'src-block)
            (funcall fn element)))))
    (save-buffer)))
(define-key org-mode-map (kbd "s-]") (lambda () (interactive)
                                       (help/org-2every-src-block
                                        'org-babel-remove-result)))

12 thoughts on “Remove Every Source Block Results”

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not sure says:

2017-07-17 at 02:32

Hello,
did you know that something similar (or exactly the same is in the core)?
It is org-babel-remove-result-one-or-many
The missing one is removing all results bodies while retaining the result placeholder.
C-u org-babel-remove-result operates only on one block.

Reply
1. Grant says:
  
  2017-07-17 at 14:10
  
  I didn’t know that. Thank you for pointing it out.
  
  Reply

@not sure org-babel-remove-result-one-or-many removes current or all result blocks in the buffer.
Grant’s solution removes all result blocks after current point.

I needed a similar solution but limited to current or parent subtree so I ended up with:

(defun test/org-subtree-remove-results (&optional up)
  "Remove result sections in the current subtree.
If a numeric prefix UP is given, move up into the
hierarchy of headlines by UP levels before removing
results the subtree."
  (interactive "P")
  (org-with-limited-levels
   (cond ((org-at-heading-p) (beginning-of-line))
         ((org-before-first-heading-p) (user-error "Not in a subtree"))
         (t (outline-previous-visible-heading 1))))
  (when up (while (and (> up 0) (org-up-heading-safe)) (cl-decf up)))
  (if (called-interactively-p 'any)
      (call-interactively 'test/org-this-subtree-remove-results)
    (test/org-this-subtree-remove-results)))

(defconst test/org-block-prefix "^\s*#[+]")

(defun test/org-this-subtree-remove-results ()
  "Visit every Source-Block and evaluate FN.
  (interactive)
  (save-restriction
    (save-excursion
      (org-narrow-to-subtree)
      (goto-char (point-min))
      (let ((case-fold-search t))
        (while (re-search-forward (concat test/org-block-prefix "BEGIN_SRC") nil t)
          (let ((element (org-element-at-point)))
            (when (eq (org-element-type element) 'src-block)
              (org-babel-remove-result)))))
      (widen))))

grant says:

2019-05-17 at 14:39

Thank you Daniel. FWI I wrapped your code in an HTML pre block.

Reply

Mike says:

2019-07-29 at 13:03

This looks exactly like what I need, but I’m a fairly new emacs user and I’m confused. I copied the function to my init.el but I don’t know how to invoke it. Thanks.

Mike

Reply
1. grant says:
  
  2019-07-31 at 16:39
  Type
```
M-x
```
  and then type
```
test/org-subtree-remove-results
```
  and hit enter.
  Reply
acbox says:

2020-05-12 at 03:15
Hi Grant,

Thanks for this!

I use Spacemacs and wanted to call your function with M-x org-babel-remove-results, so I added this to my dotspacemacs/user-config function in ~.spacemacs:
```
 
  ;; Remove all #+RESULTS: blocks from org-babel files, adapted from:
  ;; https://www.wisdomandwonder.com/article/10597/remove-every-source-block-results
  ;; To use it:
  ;; M-x org-babel-remove-results
  (defconst help/org-special-pre "^\s*#[+]")
  (defun help/org-2every-src-block (fn)
    "Visit every Source-Block and evaluate `FN'."
    (interactive)
    (save-excursion
      (goto-char (point-min))
      (let ((case-fold-search t))
        (while (re-search-forward (concat help/org-special-pre "BEGIN_SRC") nil t)
          (let ((element (org-element-at-point)))
            (when (eq (org-element-type element) 'src-block)
              (funcall fn element)))))
      (save-buffer)))
  (defun org-babel-remove-results()
    "Remove all #+RESULTS: blocks from org-babel files"
    (interactive)
    (help/org-2every-src-block
     'org-babel-remove-result))
```
It seems to work. Hopefully this is helpful for any other Emacs/Spacemacs newbies like me.

Also just to remark that Daniel B commented that the function removes all source blocks “after current point”, but I see it removing them globally in the file. Presumably that’s what goto-char (point-min) does? I’m not dealing with subtrees in the org file I’m using your code.
Reply
1. acbox says:
  
  2020-05-12 at 04:35
  
  I realised the function doesn’t remove results from #+CALL: blocks so I adapted it to do that as well:
  
  https://gist.github.com/acbox/2bc3f981cc359736d1c948cccdb098b3
  
  (I wasn’t sure how to format the code in WordPress hence the gist, sorry!)
  
  Reply
  1. grant says:
    
    2020-06-05 at 12:43
    
    Than you Daniel.
    
    In WordPress you can wrap code in a pre block to get the formatting you expect.
    
    I just edited your comment to do so.
    
    Reply
2. grant says:
  
  2020-06-15 at 13:38
  
  Presumably that’s what goto-char (point-min) does?
  
  Yes.
  
  Reply

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