Reusing the previous range in ex commands in VIM

Question

Is it possible to reuse the range of ex commands in VIM?

As an example, I can write (copy) lines 4 to 10 from my current file to a new file using the following command:

:4,10w foo/bar.txt

But what I really want to do is move the lines to a new file. I can do this like so:

:4,10w foo/bar.txt
:4,10d

But it's a bit annoying to have to type 4,10 both times.

So I have two questions:

1. Generally, Is there a way to reference the previously used range in ex commands?
2. Specifically, if there is not a way to do (1), is there any easier way to cut and paste a number of lines from one file into a new one.

Answer 1

I usually use cat to do this:

:4,10!cat > foo/bar.txt

This works because you're piping the lines through cat and replacing them with the resulting output, which is nothing. And of course you can append to the end of an existing file by doing >> instead of >.