Vim *usr_10.txt*For version 6.1. Last change: 2001 Sep 18
VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar
Making big changes
In chapter 4 several ways to make small changes were explained. This chapter
goes into making changes that are repeated or can affect a large amount of
text. The Visual mode allows doing various things with blocks of text. Use
an external program to do really complicated things.
|10.1|Record and playback commands
|10.2|Substitution
|10.3|Command ranges
|10.4|The global command
|10.5|Visual block mode
|10.6|Reading and writing part of a file
|10.7|Formatting text
|10.8|Changing case
|10.9|Using an external program
Next chapter: |usr_11.txt| Recovering from a crash
Previous chapter: |usr_09.txt| Using the GUI
Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt|
==============================================================================
*10.1*Record and playback commands
The "." command repeats the preceding change. But what if you want to do
something more complex than a single change? That's where command recording
comes in. There are three steps:
1. The "q{register}" command starts recording keystrokes into the register
named {register}. The register name must be between a and z.
2. Type your commands.
3. To finish recording, press q (without any extra character).
You can now execute the macro by typing the command "@{register}".
Take a look at how to use these commands in practice. You have a list of
filenames that look like this:
stdio.h ~
fcntl.h ~
unistd.h ~
stdlib.h ~
And what you want is the following:
#include "stdio.h" ~
#include "fcntl.h" ~
#include "unistd.h" ~
#include "stdlib.h" ~
You start by moving to the first character of the first line. Next you
execute the following commands:
qaStart recording a macro in register a.
^Move to the beginning of the line.
i#include "<Esc>Insert the string #include " at the beginning
of the line.
$Move to the end of the line.
a"<Esc>Append the character double quotation mark (")
to the end of the line.
jGo to the next line.
qStop recording the macro.
Now that you have done the work once, you can repeat the change by typing the
command "@a" three times.
The "@a" command can be preceded by a count, which will cause the macro to be
executed that number of times. In this case you would type: >
3@a
MOVE AND EXECUTE
You might have the lines you want to change in various places. Just move the
cursor to each location and use the "@a" command. If you have done that once,
you can do it again with "@@". That's a bit easier to type. If you now
execute register b with "@b", the next "@@" will use register b.
If you compare the playback method with using ".", there are several
differences. First of all, "." can only repeat one change. As seen in the
example above, "@a" can do several changes, and move around as well.
Secondly, ".&...
usr_10