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1 *usr_12.txt* For Vim version 8.0. Last change: 2017 Aug 11
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3 VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar
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4
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5 Clever tricks
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6
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7
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8 By combining several commands you can make Vim do nearly everything. In this
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9 chapter a number of useful combinations will be presented. This uses the
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10 commands introduced in the previous chapters and a few more.
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11
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12 |12.1| Replace a word
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13 |12.2| Change "Last, First" to "First Last"
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14 |12.3| Sort a list
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15 |12.4| Reverse line order
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16 |12.5| Count words
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17 |12.6| Find a man page
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18 |12.7| Trim blanks
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19 |12.8| Find where a word is used
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20
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21 Next chapter: |usr_20.txt| Typing command-line commands quickly
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22 Previous chapter: |usr_11.txt| Recovering from a crash
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23 Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt|
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24
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25 ==============================================================================
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26 *12.1* Replace a word
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27
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28 The substitute command can be used to replace all occurrences of a word with
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29 another word: >
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30
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31 :%s/four/4/g
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32
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33 The "%" range means to replace in all lines. The "g" flag at the end causes
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34 all words in a line to be replaced.
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35 This will not do the right thing if your file also contains "thirtyfour".
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36 It would be replaced with "thirty4". To avoid this, use the "\<" item to
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37 match the start of a word: >
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38
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39 :%s/\<four/4/g
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40
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1125
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41 Obviously, this still goes wrong on "fourteen". Use "\>" to match the end of
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42 a word: >
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43
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44 :%s/\<four\>/4/g
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45
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46 If you are programming, you might want to replace "four" in comments, but not
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47 in the code. Since this is difficult to specify, add the "c" flag to have the
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48 substitute command prompt you for each replacement: >
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49
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50
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51 :%s/\<four\>/4/gc
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52
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53
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54 REPLACING IN SEVERAL FILES
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55
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56 Suppose you want to replace a word in more than one file. You could edit each
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57 file and type the command manually. It's a lot faster to use record and
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58 playback.
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59 Let's assume you have a directory with C++ files, all ending in ".cpp".
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60 There is a function called "GetResp" that you want to rename to "GetAnswer".
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61
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62 vim *.cpp Start Vim, defining the argument list to
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63 contain all the C++ files. You are now in the
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64 first file.
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65 qq Start recording into the q register
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66 :%s/\<GetResp\>/GetAnswer/g
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67 Do the replacements in the first file.
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68 :wnext Write this file and move to the next one.
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69 q Stop recording.
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70 @q Execute the q register. This will replay the
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71 substitution and ":wnext". You can verify
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72 that this doesn't produce an error message.
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73 999@q Execute the q register on the remaining files.
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74
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75 At the last file you will get an error message, because ":wnext" cannot move
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76 to the next file. This stops the execution, and everything is done.
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77
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78 Note:
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79 When playing back a recorded sequence, an error stops the execution.
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80 Therefore, make sure you don't get an error message when recording.
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81
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82 There is one catch: If one of the .cpp files does not contain the word
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83 "GetResp", you will get an error and replacing will stop. To avoid this, add
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84 the "e" flag to the substitute command: >
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85
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86 :%s/\<GetResp\>/GetAnswer/ge
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87
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88 The "e" flag tells ":substitute" that not finding a match is not an error.
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89
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90 ==============================================================================
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91 *12.2* Change "Last, First" to "First Last"
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92
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93 You have a list of names in this form:
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94
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95 Doe, John ~
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96 Smith, Peter ~
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97
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98 You want to change that to:
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99
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100 John Doe ~
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101 Peter Smith ~
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102
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103 This can be done with just one command: >
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104
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105 :%s/\([^,]*\), \(.*\)/\2 \1/
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106
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107 Let's break this down in parts. Obviously it starts with a substitute
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108 command. The "%" is the line range, which stands for the whole file. Thus
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109 the substitution is done in every line in the file.
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110 The arguments for the substitute command are "/from/to/". The slashes
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111 separate the "from" pattern and the "to" string. This is what the "from"
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112 pattern contains:
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113 \([^,]*\), \(.*\) ~
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114
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115 The first part between \( \) matches "Last" \( \)
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116 match anything but a comma [^,]
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117 any number of times *
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118 matches ", " literally ,
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119 The second part between \( \) matches "First" \( \)
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120 any character .
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121 any number of times *
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122
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123 In the "to" part we have "\2" and "\1". These are called backreferences.
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124 They refer to the text matched by the "\( \)" parts in the pattern. "\2"
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125 refers to the text matched by the second "\( \)", which is the "First" name.
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126 "\1" refers to the first "\( \)", which is the "Last" name.
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127 You can use up to nine backreferences in the "to" part of a substitute
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128 command. "\0" stands for the whole matched pattern. There are a few more
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129 special items in a substitute command, see |sub-replace-special|.
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130
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131 ==============================================================================
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132 *12.3* Sort a list
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133
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134 In a Makefile you often have a list of files. For example:
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135
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136 OBJS = \ ~
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137 version.o \ ~
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138 pch.o \ ~
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139 getopt.o \ ~
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140 util.o \ ~
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141 getopt1.o \ ~
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142 inp.o \ ~
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143 patch.o \ ~
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144 backup.o ~
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145
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146 To sort this list, filter the text through the external sort command: >
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147
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148 /^OBJS
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149 j
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150 :.,/^$/-1!sort
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151
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152 This goes to the first line, where "OBJS" is the first thing in the line.
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153 Then it goes one line down and filters the lines until the next empty line.
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154 You could also select the lines in Visual mode and then use "!sort". That's
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155 easier to type, but more work when there are many lines.
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156 The result is this:
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157
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158 OBJS = \ ~
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159 backup.o ~
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160 getopt.o \ ~
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161 getopt1.o \ ~
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162 inp.o \ ~
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163 patch.o \ ~
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164 pch.o \ ~
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165 util.o \ ~
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166 version.o \ ~
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167
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168
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169 Notice that a backslash at the end of each line is used to indicate the line
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170 continues. After sorting, this is wrong! The "backup.o" line that was at
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171 the end didn't have a backslash. Now that it sorts to another place, it
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172 must have a backslash.
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173 The simplest solution is to add the backslash with "A \<Esc>". You can
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174 keep the backslash in the last line, if you make sure an empty line comes
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175 after it. That way you don't have this problem again.
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176
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177 ==============================================================================
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178 *12.4* Reverse line order
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179
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180 The |:global| command can be combined with the |:move| command to move all the
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181 lines before the first line, resulting in a reversed file. The command is: >
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182
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183 :global/^/m 0
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184
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185 Abbreviated: >
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186
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187 :g/^/m 0
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188
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189 The "^" regular expression matches the beginning of the line (even if the line
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190 is blank). The |:move| command moves the matching line to after the mythical
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191 zeroth line, so the current matching line becomes the first line of the file.
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192 As the |:global| command is not confused by the changing line numbering,
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193 |:global| proceeds to match all remaining lines of the file and puts each as
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194 the first.
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195
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196 This also works on a range of lines. First move to above the first line and
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197 mark it with "mt". Then move the cursor to the last line in the range and
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198 type: >
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199
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200 :'t+1,.g/^/m 't
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201
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202 ==============================================================================
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203 *12.5* Count words
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204
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205 Sometimes you have to write a text with a maximum number of words. Vim can
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206 count the words for you.
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207 When the whole file is what you want to count the words in, use this
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208 command: >
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209
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210 g CTRL-G
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211
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212 Do not type a space after the g, this is just used here to make the command
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213 easy to read.
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214 The output looks like this:
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215
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216 Col 1 of 0; Line 141 of 157; Word 748 of 774; Byte 4489 of 4976 ~
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217
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218 You can see on which word you are (748), and the total number of words in the
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219 file (774).
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220
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221 When the text is only part of a file, you could move to the start of the text,
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222 type "g CTRL-G", move to the end of the text, type "g CTRL-G" again, and then
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223 use your brain to compute the difference in the word position. That's a good
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224 exercise, but there is an easier way. With Visual mode, select the text you
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225 want to count words in. Then type g CTRL-G. The result:
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226
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227 Selected 5 of 293 Lines; 70 of 1884 Words; 359 of 10928 Bytes ~
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228
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229 For other ways to count words, lines and other items, see |count-items|.
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230
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231 ==============================================================================
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232 *12.6* Find a man page *find-manpage*
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233
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234 While editing a shell script or C program, you are using a command or function
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235 that you want to find the man page for (this is on Unix). Let's first use a
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236 simple way: Move the cursor to the word you want to find help on and press >
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237
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238 K
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239
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240 Vim will run the external "man" program on the word. If the man page is
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241 found, it is displayed. This uses the normal pager to scroll through the text
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242 (mostly the "more" program). When you get to the end pressing <Enter> will
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243 get you back into Vim.
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244
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245 A disadvantage is that you can't see the man page and the text you are working
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246 on at the same time. There is a trick to make the man page appear in a Vim
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247 window. First, load the man filetype plugin: >
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248
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249 :runtime! ftplugin/man.vim
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250
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251 Put this command in your vimrc file if you intend to do this often. Now you
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252 can use the ":Man" command to open a window on a man page: >
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253
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254 :Man csh
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255
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256 You can scroll around and the text is highlighted. This allows you to find
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257 the help you were looking for. Use CTRL-W w to jump to the window with the
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258 text you were working on.
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259 To find a man page in a specific section, put the section number first.
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260 For example, to look in section 3 for "echo": >
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261
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262 :Man 3 echo
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263
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264 To jump to another man page, which is in the text with the typical form
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265 "word(1)", press CTRL-] on it. Further ":Man" commands will use the same
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266 window.
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267
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268 To display a man page for the word under the cursor, use this: >
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269
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270 \K
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271
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272 (If you redefined the <Leader>, use it instead of the backslash).
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273 For example, you want to know the return value of "strstr()" while editing
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274 this line:
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275
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276 if ( strstr (input, "aap") == ) ~
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277
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278 Move the cursor to somewhere on "strstr" and type "\K". A window will open
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279 to display the man page for strstr().
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280
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281 ==============================================================================
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282 *12.7* Trim blanks
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283
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284 Some people find spaces and tabs at the end of a line useless, wasteful, and
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285 ugly. To remove whitespace at the end of every line, execute the following
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286 command: >
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287
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288 :%s/\s\+$//
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289
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290 The line range "%" is used, thus this works on the whole file. The pattern
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291 that the ":substitute" command matches with is "\s\+$". This finds white
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292 space characters (\s), 1 or more of them (\+), before the end-of-line ($).
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293 Later will be explained how you write patterns like this, see |usr_27.txt|.
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294 The "to" part of the substitute command is empty: "//". Thus it replaces
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295 with nothing, effectively deleting the matched white space.
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296
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297 Another wasteful use of spaces is placing them before a tab. Often these can
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298 be deleted without changing the amount of white space. But not always!
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299 Therefore, you can best do this manually. Use this search command: >
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300
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301 /
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302
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303 You cannot see it, but there is a space before a tab in this command. Thus
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304 it's "/<Space><Tab>". Now use "x" to delete the space and check that the
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305 amount of white space doesn't change. You might have to insert a tab if it
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306 does change. Type "n" to find the next match. Repeat this until no more
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307 matches can be found.
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308
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309 ==============================================================================
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310 *12.8* Find where a word is used
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311
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312 If you are a UNIX user, you can use a combination of Vim and the grep command
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313 to edit all the files that contain a given word. This is extremely useful if
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314 you are working on a program and want to view or edit all the files that
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315 contain a specific variable.
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316 For example, suppose you want to edit all the C program files that contain
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317 the word "frame_counter". To do this you use the command: >
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318
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319 vim `grep -l frame_counter *.c`
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320
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321 Let's look at this command in detail. The grep command searches through a set
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322 of files for a given word. Because the -l argument is specified, the command
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323 will only list the files containing the word and not print the matching lines.
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324 The word it is searching for is "frame_counter". Actually, this can be any
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325 regular expression. (Note: What grep uses for regular expressions is not
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326 exactly the same as what Vim uses.)
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327 The entire command is enclosed in backticks (`). This tells the UNIX shell
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328 to run this command and pretend that the results were typed on the command
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329 line. So what happens is that the grep command is run and produces a list of
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330 files, these files are put on the Vim command line. This results in Vim
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331 editing the file list that is the output of grep. You can then use commands
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332 like ":next" and ":first" to browse through the files.
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333
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334
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335 FINDING EACH LINE
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336
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337 The above command only finds the files in which the word is found. You still
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338 have to find the word within the files.
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339 Vim has a built-in command that you can use to search a set of files for a
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340 given string. If you want to find all occurrences of "error_string" in all C
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341 program files, for example, enter the following command: >
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342
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343 :grep error_string *.c
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344
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345 This causes Vim to search for the string "error_string" in all the specified
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346 files (*.c). The editor will now open the first file where a match is found
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347 and position the cursor on the first matching line. To go to the next
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43
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348 matching line (no matter in what file it is), use the ":cnext" command. To go
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349 to the previous match, use the ":cprev" command. Use ":clist" to see all the
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350 matches and where they are.
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351 The ":grep" command uses the external commands grep (on Unix) or findstr
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352 (on Windows). You can change this by setting the option 'grepprg'.
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353
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354 ==============================================================================
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355
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356 Next chapter: |usr_20.txt| Typing command-line commands quickly
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357
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358 Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl:
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