How to delete the newline characters at the end of every line in Vim?

Question

I have a huge file that I would like to format using Vim. For that, I would like to delete the newline characters at the end of every line.

For example,

I
want
this
to be
just one
line

should become

I want this to be just one line

I was thinking of doing it via the following command:

:%g/^/norm!‹a keyword that deletes the \n›

but I just don't know which keyword might work for that, to automate the pressing the Del key on every on every line.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The most idiomatic way of joining all lines in a buffer is to use the :join command:

:%j!

(Remove the ! sign if you want Vim to insert space between joined lines. From the wording of the question I assume that you do not want to add spaces.)

The same could be done interactively, if you prefer:

ggVGgJ

(Again, use J instead of gJ if you want to separate joined lines with spaces.)

Another option is the :substitute command:

:%s/\n//

Answer 2

ggVGJ

Broken down:

1. gg: move to line 1;
2. V: enter visual mode;
3. G: move to last line;
4. J: join selection to single line.