Logo Questions Linux Laravel Mysql Ubuntu Git Menu
 

How can I minimize keystrokes while inserting similar lines in vim?

Sometimes I need to insert some similar lines in a file which differ only in a sequence number. For example,

print "func 1";
print "func 2";
print "func 3";
print "func 4";
print "func 5";

Using vim, I end up copy pasting the first line using [yypppp] and then changing the last four lines. This is really slow if you have more lines to insert.

Is there a faster way to do this in vim?


An example of this is:

Initial state

boot();
format();
parse();
compare();
results();
clean();

Final state

print "func 1";
format();
print "func 2";
parse();
print "func 3";
compare();
print "func 4";
results();
print "func 5";
clean();
like image 430
Lazer Avatar asked Oct 21 '10 06:10

Lazer


2 Answers

Record a macro. Here is the workflow for your particular example:

Copy-paste the first line. Then,

qa       : Start recording macro to register a
yy       : Yank current line
p        : Paste current line in line below
/\d      : Search for start of number (you can skip this command, the next command automagically moves the cursor to the number)
C-A      : Control-A increments the number
q        : Stop recording macro
3@a      : Replay macro 3 times

You can replace 3 with any number to keep generating new print lines with incremented numbers.

For your second example, you can just add

j        : Moves one line down

after the yy command, to get alternating lines of commands and print's.

like image 105
Chetan Avatar answered Nov 08 '22 07:11

Chetan


You have plugins that do it. For example, visincr. Visually select your column of numbers, and run :I.

Another way to do it is to record a macro. run qx to start recording macro to register x, yiw to yank word under the cursor, j to go one line down, viwp to paste it, CTRLA to increment the new number, q to stop recording, and then @x to replay contents of register x.

like image 29
Benoit Avatar answered Nov 08 '22 09:11

Benoit