Emacs command to indent code by 4 spaces to format for paste into stackoverflow posts

Question

There has got to be a better way to indent a block of code for stackoverflow posts using Emacs. My current strategy is to:

1. Select a text region
2. execute M-x indent-code-rigidly
3. run C-x z three times to reindent the region

This seems brain-dead. Please enlighten me as to how to make this happen in a clever and elegant manner.

Answer 1

I recently created this helpful command:

(defun stackoverflow-copy-code-snippet (begin end)
  (interactive "r")
  (let ((buffer (current-buffer)))
    (with-temp-buffer
      (insert-buffer-substring-no-properties buffer begin end)
      (indent-rigidly (point-min) (point-max) 4)
      (clipboard-kill-ring-save (point-min) (point-max)))))

I just used it to copy its own source into this post. How meta!

Answer 2

This isn't materially different from scottfrazer's answer, but it's a tad easier to type: C-u C-x C-i