 Tip #81: Substitution of characters and lines in VIM is made far easier with the s and S commands
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Rating 30/30, Viewed by 4257
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| created: |
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June 21, 2001 14:41 |
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complexity: |
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basic |
| author: |
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Substitue characters and lines |
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as of Vim: |
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5.7 |
Substitute Characters
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I was just editing a file that contained the same leading string on many lines.
example:
foo_bar_baz1=a
foo_bar_baz1=abc674
foo_bar_baz1=qrs
foo_bar_baz1=m1
foo_bar_baz1=bz90
foo_bar_baz1=bc
...
Needing to only substitute a portion of the string, I referred to a VIM reference card and discovered a command answering my need exactly. The s command is used to subsitute a certain number of characters. In my example file above, if I only needed to subsititute the characters foo_bar, I set the cursor on the first character where I'd like the subsitution to begin and type 7s. VIM drops the characters foo_bar and goes to insert mode, waiting for the substitution text.
Substitute Lines
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After years of using vi and VIM and always deleting multiple lines in order to replace them, I just discovered the S command. If you need to subsitute three lines of text, simply type 3S. VIM drops the three lines and goes into insert mode, waiting for the subsitution text.
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