Ytukyg

From time to time, by mistake, I split my screen vertically C-x 3 (binded to split-window-right), whereas I originally wanted a horizontal splitting C-x 2 (binded to split-window-below).

Question: is there a function to switch between vertical <-> horizontal splitting?

note: for the moment, I hide the buffer C-x 0 and re-split with the right C-x 2 (instead of C-x 3) and reselect the buffer... which is clearly not optimal.

I use the following for this:

(defun toggle-window-split ()

  (interactive)

  (if (= (count-windows) 2)

      (let* ((this-win-buffer (window-buffer))

             (next-win-buffer (window-buffer (next-window)))

             (this-win-edges (window-edges (selected-window)))

             (next-win-edges (window-edges (next-window)))

             (this-win-2nd (not (and (<= (car this-win-edges)

                                         (car next-win-edges))

                                     (<= (cadr this-win-edges)

                                         (cadr next-win-edges)))))

             (splitter

              (if (= (car this-win-edges)

                     (car (window-edges (next-window))))

                  'split-window-horizontally

                'split-window-vertically)))

        (delete-other-windows)

        (let ((first-win (selected-window)))

          (funcall splitter)

          (if this-win-2nd (other-window 1))

          (set-window-buffer (selected-window) this-win-buffer)

          (set-window-buffer (next-window) next-win-buffer)

          (select-window first-win)

          (if this-win-2nd (other-window 1))))))

I picked that up from Magnars Sveen of Emacs Rocks fame.

You can roll your own as @Tyler suggested, but there are some packages that support this. Check out the transpose-frame package on MELPA: https://melpa.org/#/transpose-frame

This handles the simple 2-window case, but can also handle more complex arrangements where you flip or rotate the windows around.

I've not tried the transpose-frame package so I don't know how it compares, but I use the package https://melpa.org/#/rotate . Combined that with https://melpa.org/#/smartrep using the config:

  (use-package smartrep

    :config

    (setq smartrep-mode-line-active-bg nil))



  (use-package rotate

    :config

    (smartrep-define-key global-map "C-|"

    '(("w" . rotate-window)

      ("l" . rotate-layout))))

And then C-| w w w w... etc. rotates through assigning buffers to windows, and C-| l l l l... etc. rotates through layouts (such as your use case of flipping between a vertical and horizontal split).

I use C-x 0 (or C-x 1) and then C-x 4 b. The buffer I just closed is offered as the default, so it is still quick to do.