I'm aware of the vim replace command, which is of the form, eg:
:%s/old/new/gc
But what if either of these strings is long? How can I use something like visual selection mode, the clipboard or vim registers instead of having to type the old/new text in?
You can use q: to bring up a command-line window. This lets you use all the vim editing commands to edit the vim command line, including p to paste. So, you could copy the text into a register, paste it into the command line window, and execute it that way.
I recently discovered this feature via vimcasts.
According to the manual, you can use Ctrl+R to insert the contents of a register into the current position in the command line. The manual also claims that Ctrl+Y inserts the text highlighted with the mouse into the command line. Remember that in X11 and some other systems, you can also paste text into a program from the system clipboard using the middle mouse button or a menu command in your terminal emulator.
I think to avoid have your command line be huge you can use this to solve your issue
:%s/foo/\=#a/g
That replaces "foo" with whatever is in register a.
If you're trying to do a substitute with a long complicated search pattern, here's a good way of going about it:
Try out the search pattern using some test cases and refine it until you have the pattern you want. I find incsearch really helps, especially with complicated regular expressions.
You can then use :%s//new to replace all instances of the last searched for pattern.
If you've entered a pattern and want to copy it out of the search history, you can use q/ to bring up a command line window containing recent search patterns very similar to the q: one that contains recent command history.
On the other hand, if you're asking about how to copy and paste text into the substitute command:
I'd write the pattern out in insert mode and yank the search and replacement into two distinct registers using, say, "ay and "by and then use :%s/<C-R>a/<C-R>b/gc to do the substitute. There are lots of variations of the yank command, but this one should also work automatically when using a visual selection.
If you're copying in text from the clipboard, you can use <C-R>* to paste it's contents in insert mode.
I have the following mapping in my .vimrc
vnoremap <leader>r "ry:%s/^Rr/
So I visually select the thing I want to replace, and hit ,r, type the replacement and hit return. If I want to paste the replacement, I yank it before selecting the text to replace, and then use <C-r>" to paste it as the replacement before hitting return.
Note: to insert ^R in your .vimrc, you actually type <C-v><C-r>.
If I've selected some text in visual mode, how do I insert the selected text into the command line?
For example, if I want to search for the currently selected text, I could use y/<c-r>"… But is there some way of doing it without first yanking the selected text?
Edit: A better example, as searching while in visual mode would expand the selection: if I've got part of a file name selected, and I want append to that name then open it in a new editor.
I have remapped : in visual mode to solve this problem. With following mapping I can paste selected text to the command line and b - onus - move the cursor to the leftmost position:
vnoremap : y:<C-r>"<C-b>
One small drawback I can see - pressing : now cancels the selection.
After activating visual mode and selecting some text, if I hit / to search forward and then press <C-R>*, I get the selected text inserted into the command line.
Another way (at least in Linux) is to press <S-Insert>, which will insert the contents of the current selection in X11 (e.g. select something in firefox and you can <S-Insert> in any other application to copy that selection; again, at least in Linux).
Keep in mind that with your specific example, after you insert some text after the / command, your visual selection will expand to include the next occurrence of whatever it is searching.
Edit: I was assuming GVim, which copies the visual selection to the X11 selection buffer (see :help x11-selection for more info).
If you are using Vim inside a console, then I think (but could be wrong) that your best option is to select the text you want with the mouse while pressing Shift down, and then use <S-Insert> to copy that text into the command line. This works in Linux and probably in OSX too; I don't know about Windows, sorry.
Put copy and paste code into vimrc config file.
Reopen vim editor.
Select text (e.g. using v)
Enter command mode using :
Selected text can now be pasted to command line using Ctrl-p
The selected text will have special characters escaped ready for use in regex.
Credits:
Based on idea by ierton (on this page)
Most of code taken from bryan kennedy
Vim search and replace selected text
" Escape special characters in a string for exact matching.
" This is useful to copying strings from the file to the search tool
" Based on this - http://peterodding.com/code/vim/profile/autoload/xolox/escape.vim
function! EscapeString (string)
let string=a:string
" Escape regex characters
let string = escape(string, '^$.*\/~[]')
" Escape the line endings
let string = substitute(string, '\n', '\\n', 'g')
return string
endfunction
" Get the current visual block for search and replaces
" This function passed the visual block through a string escape function
" Based on this - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/676600/vim-replace-selected-text/677918#677918
function! GetVisual() range
" Save the current register and clipboard
let reg_save = getreg('"')
let regtype_save = getregtype('"')
let cb_save = &clipboard
set clipboard&
" Put the current visual selection in the " register
normal! ""gvy
let selection = getreg('"')
" Put the saved registers and clipboards back
call setreg('"', reg_save, regtype_save)
let &clipboard = cb_save
"Escape any special characters in the selection
let escaped_selection = EscapeString(selection)
return escaped_selection
endfunction
" Start the find and replace command across the entire file
vmap <leader>z <Esc>:%s/<c-r>=GetVisual()<cr>/
" When in visual mode,
" before command mode is entered by using :
" Put the contents of any selected text into
" the default register
" leave the text highlighted.
" Based on ierton - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4878980/vim-insert-selected-text-into-command-line
vnoremap : "pygv:
"Map ctrl-P to paste escaped contents of default register in command mode
" Based on bryan kennedy - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/676600/vim-search-and-replace-selected-text
cnoremap <C-P> <c-r>=GetVisual()<cr>
I know this may or may not help you, but type !command from within vim.. It's not copy and paste, but if you're using ssh - it will at least let you view your buffer(s) while you're typing out your command.
ex: !make
It really all depends on what environment you're in..
If you're using putty from windows, you can actually highlight and copy text from it(configurable as well within putty) and paste into either another putty session or another window(if using screen or tmux).
If you're actually on the box and have a graphical environment, copy & paste should be fairly easy(so I assume you're not in this position).
Hope it helps, sorry if it doesn't.
For pasting on the vim command line:
first copy the selected text
open command line :
use Ctrl-r " for pasting
I found the solution. When you press : in visual mode instead of normal ":" you have there ":'<,'>". So you need to erase this to write command as usual.
For expanding to selected text <C-r>* works pretty well.
vnoremap <M-8> :<BS><BS><BS><BS><BS>NGrep <C-r>*<CR>
If you want to edit command before launching it just remove trailing <CR>.
I'd like to paste yanked text into Vim's command line. Is it possible?
Yes. Hit Ctrl-R then ". If you have literal control characters in what you have yanked, use Ctrl-R, Ctrl-O, ".
Here is an explanation of what you can do with registers. What you can do with registers is extraordinary, and once you know how to use them you cannot live without them.
Registers are basically storage locations for strings. Vim has many registers that work in different ways:
0 (yank register: when you use y in normal mode, without specifying a register, yanked text goes there and also to the default register),
1 to 9 (shifting delete registers, when you use commands such as c or d, what has been deleted goes to register 1, what was in register 1 goes to register 2, etc.),
" (default register, also known as unnamed register. This is where the " comes in Ctrl-R, "),
a to z for your own use (capitalized A to Z are for appending to corresponding registers).
_ (acts like /dev/null (Unix) or NUL (Windows), you can write to it but it's discarded and when you read from it, it is always empty),
- (small delete register),
/ (search pattern register, updated when you look for text with /, ?, * or # for instance; you can also write to it to dynamically change the search pattern),
: (stores last VimL typed command via Q or :, readonly),
+ and * (system clipboard registers, you can write to them to set the clipboard and read the clipboard contents from them)
See :help registers for the full reference.
You can, at any moment, use :registers to display the contents of all registers. Synonyms and shorthands for this command are :display, :reg and :di.
In Insert or Command-line mode, Ctrl-R plus a register name, inserts the contents of this register. If you want to insert them literally (no auto-indenting, no conversion of control characters like 0x08 to backspace, etc), you can use Ctrl-R, Ctrl-O, register name.
See :help i_CTRL-R and following paragraphs for more reference.
But you can also do the following (and I probably forgot many uses for registers).
In normal mode, hit ":p. The last command you used in vim is pasted into your buffer.
Let's decompose: " is a Normal mode command that lets you select what register is to be used during the next yank, delete or paste operation. So ": selects the colon register (storing last command). Then p is a command you already know, it pastes the contents of the register.
cf. :help ", :help quote_:
You're editing a VimL file (for instance your .vimrc) and would like to execute a couple of consecutive lines right now: yj:#"Enter.
Here, yj yanks current and next line (this is because j is a linewise motion but this is out of scope of this answer) into the default register (also known as the unnamed register). Then the :# Ex command plays Ex commands stored in the register given as argument, and " is how you refer to the unnamed register. Also see the top of this answer, which is related.
Do not confuse " used here (which is a register name) with the " from the previous example, which was a Normal-mode command.
cf. :help :# and :help quote_quote
Insert the last search pattern into your file in Insert mode, or into the command line, with Ctrl-R, /.
cf. :help quote_/, help i_CTRL-R
Corollary: Keep your search pattern but add an alternative: / Ctrl-R, / \|alternative.
You've selected two words in the middle of a line in visual mode, yanked them with y, they are in the unnamed register. Now you want to open a new line just below where you are, with those two words: :pu. This is shorthand for :put ". The :put command, like many Ex commands, works only linewise.
cf. :help :put
You could also have done: :call setreg('"', #", 'V') then p. The setreg function sets the register of which the name is given as first argument (as a string), initializes it with the contents of the second argument (and you can use registers as variables with the name #x where x is the register name in VimL), and turns it into the mode specified in the third argument, V for linewise, nothing for characterwise and literal ^V for blockwise.
cf. :help setreg(). The reverse functions are getreg() and getregtype().
If you have recorded a macro with qa...q, then :echo #a will tell you what you have typed, and #a will replay the macro (probably you knew that one, very useful in order to avoid repetitive tasks)
cf. :help q, help #
Corollary from the previous example: If you have 8go in the clipboard, then #+ will play the clipboard contents as a macro, and thus go to the 8th byte of your file. Actually this will work with almost every register. If your last inserted string was dd in Insert mode, then #. will (because the . register contains the last inserted string) delete a line. (Vim documentation is wrong in this regard, since it states that the registers #, %, : and . will only work with p, P, :put and Ctrl-R).
cf. :help #
Don't confuse :# (command that plays Vim commands from a register) and # (normal-mode command that plays normal-mode commands from a register).
Notable exception is #:. The command register does not contain the initial colon neither does it contain the final carriage return. However in Normal mode, #: will do what you expect, interpreting the register as an Ex command, not trying to play it in Normal mode. So if your last command was :e, the register contains e but #: will reload the file, not go to end of word.
cf. :help #:
Show what you will be doing in Normal mode before running it: #='dd' Enter. As soon as you hit the = key, Vim switches to expression evaluation: as you enter an expression and hit Enter, Vim computes it, and the result acts as a register content. Of course the register = is read-only, and one-shot. Each time you start using it, you will have to enter a new expression.
cf. :help quote_=
Corollary: If you are editing a command, and you realize that you should need to insert into your command line some line from your current buffer: don't press Esc! Use Ctrl-R =getline(58) Enter. After that you will be back to command line editing, but it has inserted the contents of the 58th line.
Define a search pattern manually: :let #/ = 'foo'
cf. :help :let
Note that doing that, you needn't to escape / in the pattern. However you need to double all single quotes of course.
Copy all lines beginning with foo, and afterwards all lines containing bar to clipboard, chain these commands: qaq (resets the a register storing an empty macro inside it), :g/^foo/y A, :g/bar/y A, :let #+ = #a.
Using a capital register name makes the register work in append mode
Better, if Q has not been remapped by mswin.vim, start Ex mode with Q, chain those “colon commands” which are actually better called “Ex commands”, and go back to Normal mode by typing visual.
cf. :help :g, :help :y, :help Q
Double-space your file: :g/^/put _. This puts the contents of the black hole register (empty when reading, but writable, behaving like /dev/null) linewise, after each line (because every line has a beginning!).
Add a line containing foo before each line: :g/^/-put ='foo'. This is a clever use of the expression register. Here, - is a synonym for .-1 (cf. :help :range). Since :put puts the text after the line, you have to explicitly tell it to act on the previous one.
Copy the entire buffer to the system clipboard: :%y+.
cf. :help :range (for the % part) and :help :y.
If you have misrecorded a macro, you can type :let #a=' Ctrl-R =replace(#a,"'","''",'g') Enter ' and edit it. This will modify the contents of the macro stored in register a, and it's shown here how you can use the expression register to do that. Another, simpler, way of modifying a macro is to paste it in a buffer ("ap), edit it, and put it again into the register, by selecting it and "ay.
If you did dddd, you might do uu in order to undo. With p you could get the last deleted line. But actually you can also recover up to 9 deletes with the registers #1 through #9.
Even better, if you do "1P, then . in Normal mode will play "2P, and so on.
cf. :help . and :help quote_number
If you want to insert the current date in Insert mode: Ctrl-R=strftime('%y%m%d')Enter.
cf. :help strftime()
Once again, what can be confusing:
:# is a command-line command that interprets the contents of a register as vimscript and sources it
# in normal mode command that interprets the contents of a register as normal-mode keystrokes (except when you use : register, that contains last played command without the initial colon: in this case it replays the command as if you also re-typed the colon and the final return key).
" in normal mode command that helps you select a register for yank, paste, delete, correct, etc.
" is also a valid register name (the default, or unnamed, register) and therefore can be passed as an arguments for commands that expect register names
For pasting something that is the system clipboard you can just use SHIFT - INS.
It works in Windows, but I am guessing it works well in Linux too.
"I'd like to paste yanked text into Vim command line."
While the top voted answer is very complete, I prefer editing the command history.
In normal mode, type: q:. This will give you a list of recent commands, editable and searchable with normal vim commands. You'll start on a blank command line at the bottom.
For the exact thing that the article asks, pasting a yanked line (or yanked anything) into a command line, yank your text and then: q:p (get into command history edit mode, and then (p)ut your yanked text into a new command line. Edit at will, enter to execute.
To get out of command history mode, it's the opposite. In normal mode in command history, type: :q + enter
For pasting something from the system clipboard into the Vim command line ("command mode"), use Ctrl+R followed by +. For me, at least on Ubuntu, Shift+Ins is not working.
PS: I am not sure why Ctrl+R followed by *, which is theoretically the same as Ctrl+R followed by + doesn't seem to work always. I searched and discovered the + version and it seems to work always, at least on my box.
It's worth noting also that the yank registers are the same as the macro buffers. In other words, you can simply write out your whole command in your document (including your pasted snippet), then "by to yank it to the b register, and then run it with #b.
For context, this information comes from out-of-the-box, no plugins, no .vimrc Vim 7.4 behavior in Linux Mint with the default options.
You can always select text with the mouse (or using V or v and placing the selection in the "* register), and paste it into the command line with Shift + Ctrl + v.
Typing Ctrl + r in the command line will cause a prompt for a register name. so typing :CTRL-r* will place the content register * into the command line. It will paste any register, not just "*. See :help c_CTRL-R.
Furthermore, the middle mouse button will paste into the command line.
See :help->quote-plus for a description of the how X Window deals with selection. Even in a plain, out-of-the-box Vim (again, in Vim 7.4 in Linux Mint, anyway), any selection made with the left mouse button can be pasted in the command line with the middle mouse button.
In addition, the middle mouse button will also paste text selected in Vim into many other X Window applications, even GUI ones (for example, Firefox and Thunderbird) and pasting text into the command line is also possible where the text was selected from other apps.
See :help->x11-selection for addl information.
tl;dr
Try the :CTRL-r approach first, and then use Shift + Ctrl + v or the middle mouse button if you need something else.
It is conceded that it can be confusing.
I was having a similar problem. I wanted the selected text to end up in a command, but not rely on pasting it in. Here's the command I was trying to write a mapping for:
:call VimuxRunCommand("python")
The docs for this plugin only show using string literals. The following will break if you try to select text that contains doublequotes:
vnoremap y:call VimuxRunCommand("<c-r>"")<cr>
To get around this, you just reference the contents of the macro using # :
vnoremap y:call VimuxRunCommand(#")<cr>
Passes the contents of the unnamed register in and works with my double quote and multiline edgecases.
OS X
If you are using Vim in Mac OS X, unfortunately it comes with older version, and not complied with clipboard options. Luckily, Homebrew can easily solve this problem.
Install Vim:
brew install vim --with-lua --with-override-system-vi
Install the GUI version of Vim:
brew install macvim --with-lua --with-override-system-vi
Restart the terminal for it to take effect.
Append the following line to ~/.vimrc
set clipboard=unnamed
Now you can copy the line in Vim with yy and paste it system-wide.
"[a-z]y: Copy text to the [a-z] register
Use :! to go to the edit command
Ctrl + R: Follow the register identity to paste what you copy.
It used to CentOS 7.
If you have two values yanked into two different registers (for example register a and register b) then you can simply set a variable c and do the operation on it.
For example, :set c = str2float(#a) + str2float(#b) and then you can paste the content of c anywhere.
For example whilst in INSERT mode, CTRL + R then type = to enter into the expression register and just type c after equal sign and hit ENTER. Done you should now have the total of a and b registers.
All these can be recorded in a macro and repeated over!
The str2float function is used if you are working with floats, if you don't, you will get integers instead.
I am not sure if this is idiomatic but it worked for my case where I needed to add 2 numbers in a row and repeat it for 500 more lines.
I like to use Control-v to paste from the system clipboard, so I use:
cnoremap <C-v> <C-r>+
I want to search for $maximumTotalAllowedAfterFinish and replace it with $minimumTotalAllowedAfterFinish. Instead of typing the long text:
:%s/$maximumTotalAllowedAfterFinish/$minimumTotalAllowedAfterFinish/g
Is there a way to COPY these long variable names down into the search line, since, on the command line I can't type "p" to paste?
You can insert the contents of a numbered or named register by typing CTRLR {0-9a-z"%#:-=.}. By typing CTRL-R CTRL-W you can paste the current word under the cursor. See:
:he cmdline-editing
for more information.
Copy it as normal, then do CtrlR" to paste. There are lots of other CtrlR shortcuts (e.g, a calculator, current filename, clipboard contents). Type :help c_<C-R> to see the full list.
Copy:
1) v (or highlight with mouse, in visual mode)
2) y (yank)
Paste:
1) / (search mode)
2) Ctrl + R + 0 (paste from yanked register)
Type q: to get into history editing mode in a new buffer. Then edit the last line of the buffer and press Enter to execute it.
Or create the command in a vim buffer , e.g. type it in the buffer:
s/foo/bar/gci
And copy it to a named register, with "ayy (if the cursor is on that line!).
Now you can execute the contents of the "a" register from Vim's Ex command line with:
:[OPTIONAL_RANGE]#a
I use it all the time.
You can place the cursor on the word that you want to add to your pattern and then press / or : to enter either the search or the command mode, and then press CtrlRCtrlW to copy the word. Source
Typically, you would do that with mouse selecting (perhaps CtrlIns or CtrlC after selecting) and then, when in the command/search line, middle-clicking (or ShiftIns or CtrlV).
Another way, is to write your command/search line in the text buffer with all the editing available in text buffers, starting with : and all, then, on the line, do:
"add#a
which will store the whole command line in buffer a, and then execute it. It won't be stored in the command history, though.
Try creating the following line in the text buffer as an example for the key presses above:
:%s/$maximumTotalAllowedAfterFinish/$minimumTotalAllowedAfterFinish/g
Finally, you can enter q: to enter history editing in a text buffer.
add a line: cnoremap <c-v> <c-r>+ in your vimrc, then you can use ctrl-v to paste.