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Replace text from line above in Vim

How do I replace the first ten characters of a string where those ten characters match a specific pattern with the first ten characters from the string above?

Edit: It's unclear if I am asking to replace the first ten characters where the match could appear anywhere in the string, so maybe take a note in your answer if it deals with this case (call this case B and the supposed one case A?)

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6 answers


Prehaps:

:%s/^\(.\{10}\)\(.*\n\)abcdefghij\(.*\)/\1\2\1\3/


Where 'abcdefghij' is a string with 10 characters on the second line

+4


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Something like this will work:

%s/^.\{10\}/\=strpart(get(getbufline("", line(".")-1), 0, ""), 0, 10)/


where ^.\{10\}

is your actual template.

%s/                      # substitute all lines matching…
^.\{10\}                 # your pattern
/                        # …with…
\=                       # an expression:
strpart(                 # gets the part of a string
  get(                   # gets an element of a list
    getbufline(          # gets a list of lines from the current buffer
      "", line(".")-1)   # getbufline() the line before the current line
  , 0, "")               # get() first line in buffer, default to ""
, 0, 10)                 # strpart() first ten characters
/                        # …end of substitution
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:2,$g/<pattern>/s/^.\{10}/\=strpart(getline(line(".")-1),0,10)
  • 2,$

    - our range (since the first line has no previous line)
  • g//

    allows you to run a command on lines that match a given pattern.
  • s/^.\{10}/

    will replace the first 10 characters of the string
  • \=

    allows you to substitute the result of a vim expression in :s//

  • line(".")

    - current line number
  • getline(line(".")-1)

    is the text of the previous line
  • strpart(getline(line(".")-1),0,10)

    is the first 10 characters of the previous line

For example, 2,$g/frog/s/^.\{10}/\=strpart(getline(line(".")-1),0,10)

will change:

I like eat ing mangos
 before fry ing frogs legs
 I wish I h ad a puppy
 She gave D ad a frog

For this:

I like eat ing mangos
 I like eat ing frogs legs
 I wish I h ad a puppy
 I wish I h ad a frog
+3


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If I have such a complex action, I usually record a macro using the command q

. Something like (untested):

/<pattern>
qq
10x
k
10yl
j
P
n
q

And then repeat the question that the macro is @q

not necessarily prefixed with a count.

+2


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You can use search and replace:

:7,9 s/foo/bar/c

This example searches lines 7 through 9 for each case of "foo" and replaces it with "bar", asking for confirmation on each hit. If you don't want to confirm, leave a c at the end. Choose the range as you see fit and this should get you where you want

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Using only vim movements and yanking / inserting .. Given the contents of the file ..

1234567890abcdef
qwertyuiopasdfgh

With the cursor on q,, the 10x

file becomes:

1234567890abcdef
asdfgh

Move cursor to first line (with k

do this) then do 10yl

(check 10 characters, right)

Then go back one line j

and paste P

(uppercase to paste under the cursor) and the file becomes:

1234567890abcdef
1234567890asdfgh

In short, starting at the cursor at q:

10xk10yljP

.. which you can insert, or assign to a macro

It would be shorter if there was an explicit shortcut to insert by overwrite, but I couldn't find such a thing

Another option is the incredibly stealthy regex search / replace.

The visual bar selects two target lines and triggers the following search and replace:

:'<,'>s/\(\(.\{10\}\).*\)\n\(.\{10\}\)\(.*\)$/\1\r\2\4/

Basically it is exciting.

  • \1

    - the entire first line
  • \2

    - first 10 characters (in a nested group)
  • linebreak
  • \3

    - the first ten characters of the second line
  • \4

    - the rest of the second line

Then it constructs two lines as \1\n\2\4

- complete first line, line, first 10 characters of the first, the rest of the second

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