Complicated VI replacement with variable expression

jhwilliams · 08-17-2007, 09:22 AM

I have n lines of code (n big enough to make this reasonable)

all of which have this format:

ABcD, where A,B,D are constant string, and c is a variable string. for example...

Code:

...
ham tuna donkey potato
ham tuna horse potato
ham tuna giraffe potato
...

I am trying to come up wtih a VI replacement command to change my
ABcD pattern to Ac'cD, where c' is the string c, but with # in front of it.

So I would have:

Code:

...
ham #donkey donkey potato
ham #horse horse potato
ham #giraffe giraffe potato
....

any ideas?

Thank you!
Jameson

druuna · 08-17-2007, 09:44 AM

Hi,

Try this:

:%s/\([a-z]*\) \([a-z]*\) \([a-z]*\) \([a-z]*\)/\1 #\3 \3 \4/

If you also need uppercase and/or numbers you need to adjust the [a-z] parts accordingly.

Hope this helps.