vim: replace all characters up to a given token

Question

Using vim I would like to replace all characters up to a certain one with another character, say a blank space - without affecting the layout/number of characters in the line. Here's an example:

Before:

real(kind=R12), intent(out) :: my_var

After replacing , intent(out) with blanks (i.e. starting from ,, and going up to )):

real(kind=R12)              :: my_var

I know about r to replace one character, and about nr to replace n characters, but I would like to know whether I can accomplish my task without first having to count the characters I want to replace.

Thanks a lot for your replies!

Answer 1

Visual mode is probably the shortest way here:

vt:r 

• v enter visual mode
• t: select till :
• r (note space after r) replace selected region with spaces.

Answer 2

In command mode type 'df?' to delete up to that (?) character. Then 'i' to go back to insert.

For example if the following sentence is in your view:

The wizard quickly jinxed the gnomes before they vaporized.

and you enter dfs

You will be left with:

 before they vaporized.