vim repeat find next character 'x' - vim

I often navigate in vim by f x to find next occurrence of character 'x',
but overlook that there is a word (or more words) containing 'x' in between the word I want to edit and the beginning cursor position.
So i have to f x again, which is kind of annoying since there is this nice button ., which does repeat the last command. So is there a way to repeat f x with a single button press.

The command to repeat an f is ; (semicolon); , (comma) reverses the direction of the search.

Time has passed since I asked this question - nowadays I use vim-easymotion, which makes the need for ; almost unnecessary.
This plugin allows to jump to a certain letter directly - triggering the plugin makes all letters grey except for all 'x' on the screen - and those are replaced by red letters which you can press to jump directly to it.

To add to #Jeremiah Willcock answer, We can add count to f command to go to the nth occurrence [count]f{char}. For e.g.
2fx => goes to the second occurrence of x [if available]
similarly we can use the same counter to ; and ,. For e.g.
2; => goes to the second occurrence of last search [if available]
2, => goes to the second occurrence of last search in reverse [if available]
This is very useful when using it with c{motion}(change) or d{motion}(delete). For e.g. If we want to change or delete to 3rd occurrence of a char we can do
c3fx => change to 3rd occurrence of character x (included)
d3fx => delete to 3rd occurrence of character x (included)

Related

Delete till end of sentence in vim

So I'm playing vim adventures and I got stuck. I need a Vim command that will delete the keys in red. I thought dd would do it, but that only deletes the current line.
Use das or dis to delete a sentence. Use dap or dip to delete a paragraph. See :help text-objects for details. Unrelated to your question, see this wiki page for plugins that provide other, highly useful text objects.
) jumps to the beginning of next sentence, so d) will delete (from the cursor) till the beginning of the next sentence. Vim detects sentences using ., meaning period + space. This does mean that d) will have some problems if your cursor is on either the period or space delimiting two sentences, and will only delete until the first character of the next sentence (meaning it deletes either a space or the period and space, which is almost never what is desired). das will work as you probably expect, deleting the sentence and the delimiter (period + space).
If you specifically want to move (and delete to) the last character in a sentence it is more complicated according to this vi.SE answer:
The solution was either dk which deletes the line and the line above it or dj which deletes the line and the line below it.
My original question was actually not the right question (there are multiple sentences).
To delete to the end of the sentence, from where your cursor is, use the letters, use "d)". the "d" is the delete command object, followed by a motion object ")" which advances the cursor (and the deletion process) to the end of the sentence.
To delete "around" a sentence, including all the extra whitespace, use "das" (delete around sentence). Or to delete inside the sentence, and not all the whitespace, then use "dis" (delete inside sentence).
Once you understand the VIM language, then you can easily memorize a plethora of operations. Use this table to understand VIM's vocabulary:
COUNT NUMERAL + TEXT OBJECT COMMAND + MOTION (or OPERATORS)
"3das" will perform "delete around sentence 3 times"
So, if practical, you could place a numeral followed by...
a command:
d=delete
y=yank (into memory buffer to "put" later)
c=change (delete then insert new text)
and then a motion:
) = move cursor to end of sentence
( = move cursor to beginning of prior sentence
} = move cursor to the next paragraph
{ = move cursor to the beginning of the prior paragraph
w = move cursor to next word
b = move cursor back a word
$ = move cursor to the end of the logical line
0 = (zero) move cursor to the beginning of the logical line
G = move cursor to the end of the file
gg = move cursor to the beginning of the file
h, j, k, or l (you might have to look those up)
OR instead of a Motion, define a field of area using:
a = around
i = inside
followed by the name of the area around the cursor:
s = sentence
p = paragraph
w = word
t = xml-tag <tag example> lots of text between tags </tag example>
< or > = inside or around a tag, frequently found in xml documents
{ [ ( ) ] } = inside or around any type of bracket ...
... {a large area [some more (a little stuff) things] of a great many things }
I actually find this table from the help file the best overview for block commands:
"dl" delete character (alias: "x")
"diw" delete inner word
"daw" delete a word
"diW" delete inner WORD (see |WORD|)
"daW" delete a WORD (see |WORD|)
"dgn" delete the next search pattern match
"dd" delete one line
"dis" delete inner sentence
"das" delete a sentence
"dib" delete inner '(' ')' block
"dab" delete a '(' ')' block
"dip" delete inner paragraph
"dap" delete a paragraph
"diB" delete inner '{' '}' block
"daB" delete a '{' '}' block
So deleting a sentence is das or deleting a paragraph is dap.
If you want to delete from J up to and including the . start at J and use df.
If you want to delete both lines then 2dd
Another option (not sure if it works in the game) is to delete up to and including the period:
d/\./e
You have to escape the period when using a search pattern like this after the delete command.
If you were limited to a single line, it is much simpler:
df.
You can use the command: d2d, but I do not know whether it works in the game.
Vim grammar is [Nubmer] [Operator/ Command] [Motion or Text Object]
So in this case, you can use: 2dd

vim change one occurrence alone in the line

I had a text like this
pid_t child;
long orig_eax;
child = fork();
if(child == 0) {
printf("the child is happy %d", child);
printf("the child");
I wanted to replace the word 'child' selectively using vim
so I used
%s/child/pid/c
so it asked me before replacing each match
but when it came to line 5 where there are two occurrences of 'child' , where I wanted to replace second one alone , so when it prompted to change first occurrence I gave 'n' , then instead asking the next occurrence in the same line it skipped the entire line and went to the next line.
Is this the expected behavior ?
If so how to ignore the first occurrence in the line but replace the second in the same line using the above search command ?
Add g ('global') modifier after the second / (along with the c (which stands for 'confirm')) : :%s/child/pid/cg
For more informations on flags, have a look at :help s_flags.
For instance, for the g flag :
[g] Replace all occurrences in the line. Without this argument,
replacement occurs only for the first occurrence in each line. If
the 'edcompatible' option is on, Vim remembers this flag and toggles
it each time you use it, but resets it when you give a new search
pattern. If the 'gdefault' option is on, this flag is on by default
and the [g] argument switches it off.

How to delete till backward in vim

I know how to delete until a char forward, like using dtx to delete till the x char from current cursor onwards. But how can I to do that backwards?
Say I have the following:
"abc I want to delete back to I"
And the cursor is at the end of the line, I want it to be "abc ".
In general, capital letters reverse. So we have:
t do something until a character
T do something BACKWARDS until a character
f do something until and including a character
F do something BACKWARDS until and including a character
I guess the problem is not how to remove till/to (T/F) the char backwards. You need delete the char under cursor too , in your case, the last I. leaving abc<space> at the end.
option 1: (3 key strokes)
You can move to the first I backwards, than D:
FID
option 2: (4 key strokes)
or move cursor to the beginning, do it forwardly.
0FID
option 3: (4 key strokes)
you can do an extra x.
dFIx
option 4: (4 key strokes)
with v:
vFIx
With cursor at end of line in normal mode, do dTc.

Vim Copy and paste text on the same line

I have an input text as follows -
(command (and (A B C) ))
(command (and (D E F) ))
(command (and (G H I) ))
...
...
I would like to copy and paste part of text on the same line as
(command (and (A B C) (A B C)))
(command (and (D E F) (D E F)))
(command (and (G H I) (G H I)))
...
...
Will it be possible to do it using VI Editor automatically?
Update :
I think I missed one important point that the values A,B,C ... I... can have variable length. I just used them as symbols.
Thanks !
If all the lines are the same length and format as in your example:
With cursor anywhere on or inside of parens (A B C):
va(Ctrl+v
Now you have (A B C) selected and are in block select mode. Use any mechanism to block select downward. If it is a few lines, you can just move downward. If it is many you can add a count, or use a search (/) or end of file Shift+g.
Once you have selected all:
y/)Enterp
This will yank (y) the whole block, move to the close paren, and paste the block after it (p).
If the lines vary in length or otherwise cannot be reasonably selected as a block
You can use a pattern replacement. This is specific to your example, where we are looking for the pattern (A B C) where A, B and C are capital letters contained in parentheses and separated by spaces. We take a match of that pattern plus the following space, and replace it with the match of that pattern, a space, and the pattern match again.
:%s/\(([A-Z] [A-Z] [A-Z])\) /\1 \1/
Yes, several ways to do this in vim (as with most things). I would probably opt for a quick macro: go to the first line and hit qa from normal mode to start recording a macro named "a". Now do the edit on that line manually. Of course you'll want the operations to be generic, so don't just type in the values, use yank and put to copy it. Once the edit is done, escape to normal mode and press j to move down to the next line (this will set you up to run the macro on the next line). Hit q again to stop recording, then type #a to execute the macro on the next line, then hit it again to run it on the next line, etc. Or, once you do #a once, you can do ## to run the same macro again. You can also supply a count to ## to do is several times.
Alternatively, you can do a regex with the :s command, but it depends on what your lines actually look like and how good you are with regex.
(these work for me in vim)
using block select:
14l<C-v>jj6ly7lp
using macro (if lengths are varied):
record the macro using:
qqf(;vf)y;pj0q
and then repeat as neccessary:
100#q
works for a file with 100 lines
I combine the techniques given by bmearns and Kev.
So what I did is as follows
start recording the macro by q.
/( to find the opening bracket, so it goes to the second one.
n to goto the third one.
v to mark the visual block
/) to search for the end of the bracket
y to copy the visual block
n to goto next ) bracket
One time arrow key to go next to the closing bracket
p to paste the visual block
Down Arrow key to goto next line.
Home Key to goto first location of the next line.
q to stop recording the macro
#a to do the same operation for all the lines.
And it worked just completely fine !
Thanks a lot guys !

How to add a word at the beginning of multiple lines in vim?

In Vim,
How do i add a word at the beginning of all lines?
Also how do i add it at end?
Eg..
If i have
A
B
C
D
I want to make it to
int A =
int B =
etc..
use visual block mode (Ctrl-v) to select the column you want, and then hit I, type the characters you want, and then hit Esc
So in this case, you'd put your cursor on A, hit Ctrl-v, go down to D, hit I and type int (it'll only appear on the first line while you type it), and then hit Esc at which point it'll apply that insert to all visually selected portions.
This works for anywhere in the document, beginning of line or end of line.
:he v_b_I for more info on Visual Block Insert
You can do this:
:%s/^/at the beginning/
:%s/$/at the end/
:%s/.\+/int & =
+ won't match on empty lines
If you need to copy just the first word, then do:
:%s/^\w\+/int & =/g
If you want to preserve indentation, then do:
:%s/^\(\s*\)\(\w\+\)/\1int \2 =/g
A global substitute should do i:
:%s/.\+/int & =/
This is how it works: in the second part of the substitution (ie in the int & =) the ampersand is replaced with what machted in the first part (the .*). Since .* matches the entire line, each line is subsituted as wanted.
If you have empty lines (in which you don't want to have any replacements), you could go with a
:%s/^\S\+$/int & =/

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