vim search and replace only one line

hakmed · 11-02-2006, 12:53 PM

Quick vim question. Most versions of vim that I've been on usually replace globally without having to specify /g. Is there a flag to specify "replace only on the line where the cursor is"?

Thanks

druuna · 11-02-2006, 01:05 PM

Hi,

The g is not used to indicate multiple lines, but for making it global on one line, I.e:

String is: abcabc

s/a/X/ will return => Xbcabc
s/a/X/g will return => XbcXbc

Line ranges are:
<none> only on line where cursor is on.
5,15 => line 5 up to and including line 15
4,$ => line 4 to end
.,$ => from line where cursor is on to end.

Combined:

12,$s/a/X/ => from line 12 to end replace all first found a's on line.

Hope this clears things up a bit.

hakmed · 11-02-2006, 01:16 PM

Thanks for your reply!

So when I run :%s/^\s*// on:

Code:

    test
        test
            test

and my cursor is on the 2nd line, I should get this:

Code:

    test
test
            test

correct?

But I get this:

Code:

test
test
test

Do I have some other configuration set that I don't know about?

druuna · 11-02-2006, 01:36 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by hakmed

Thanks for your reply!

So when I run :%s/^\s*// on:

Code:

    test
        test
            test

and my cursor is on the 2nd line, I should get this:

Code:

    test
test
            test

correct?

Incorrect.

% is short for 1,$ (or 0,$ if you like), which is the whole file.

:s/^\s*// is all you need if you want to target the line the cursor is on. You don't need to include an address (line) range.

Hope this helps.

frogstarr78 · 11-02-2006, 11:33 PM

This may be a bit old of a posting but I'll add my two cents also....
... another option to target line two, in your example of:

Code:


    test
        test
            test

is

Code:

:2 s/^\s*//

hakmed · 11-07-2006, 07:13 PM

Excellent. Thanks everyone!