[SOLVED] sorting in vi editor & copying to clipboard

sumeet inani · 05-06-2010, 03:10 AM

Question
(1)There should be a command to send content to clipboard instead of 36 buffers available in vi just like ':set paste' allows pasting from clipboard inside vi using ctrl+shift+v in insert mode.(Currently I select area using mouse & right click then copy )

(2)Let us say I have sentence "I am young"
I want to arrange the words in this line in alphabetical order so that I get 'am I young'.
First I thought replacing space by \r in sentence.Then !#j then type sort -n where # represents number of words.Then #J to join the filteredlines.It works but now I have file with hundreds of sentence of varying length.If I make a macro how will it know the number of words ?

penguiniator · 05-06-2010, 06:47 AM

This all depends on which vi you use. Are you using Vim? (Your mention of the :set paste option implies that you are.) If so, the "+ register holds the contents of the system clipboard. If you are using X Window, (Again, your mention of the selection buffer implies that you are.) the "* also contains the contents of the current X selection.

"+y to copy to the system clipboard
"+d to "cut" to the system clipboard
"+p to paste from the system clipboard
"*p to paste from the X Window selection buffer

Your second question is answered directly at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1...t-lines-in-vim. The solution there can be made into a macro very easily.

sumeet inani · 05-06-2010, 09:36 AM

For benefit of all users
I found that

Code:

:.!tr ' ' '\n' | sort | tr '\n' ' '

Also this worked (though I don't understand it)

Code:

:call setline('.', join(sort(split(getline('.'), ' ')), " "))

Both of the above sorted the words in a line.

to penguiniator
"*p,"+p did not paste contents of clipboard.

I am using vim in ubuntu 8.04.

colucix · 05-06-2010, 09:56 AM

To use the clipboard facilities, your version of vim should be compiled with X clipboard support. To verify this try

Code:

vim --version

and look at +clipboard and +xterm_clipboard (support on) or -clipboard and -xterm_clipboard (support off).

sumeet inani · 05-06-2010, 11:01 PM

Another question
Suppose I have line

Code:

NET __WIFI_LINK_ DS20-1 U9-AA22

I want to prefix __WIFI_LINK_ to all other words that follow it.I want

Code:

NET __WIFI_LINK_ __WIFI_LINK_DS20-1 __WIFI_LINK_U9-AA22

I have file containing lots of such sentences then I will make a macro.Problem is I want to replace space in sentence with word just copied in present line.i.e
:s/ / WordCopied/g
what should I mention for WordCopied ?
(answer) use ctrl+rREGISTER_NAME to get its content in ex-mode.
By default contents are copied to " register if you don't mention a-z.

sumeet inani · 05-07-2010, 01:20 AM

to colucix
Mine says
$vim --version | grep -i clipboard
-clientserver -clipboard +cmdline_compl +cmdline_hist +cmdline_info +comments
-xterm_clipboard -xterm_save

As you said colucix , this means support is off.
What can i do ?

catkin · 05-07-2010, 01:36 AM

If the terminal emulator you are using supports copy-and-paste then you can copy the word and then paste it after entering ":s/ / "

sumeet inani · 05-07-2010, 03:16 AM

:s/ / means replace space by space in current line.
Catkin, Are you talking about 'another question'.
In that my query was to copy word from register . With every line Contents of register change as macro copies second word in corresponding line.

colucix · 05-07-2010, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sumeet inani

As you said colucix, this means support is off. What can i do?

You should either install a vim package compiled with clipboard support or compile it from source by yourself. Well.. if you're running Ubuntu (as we can see from the Ubuntu icon in your posts) the mentioned package is vim-full.

sumeet inani · 05-07-2010, 04:24 AM

thank you colucix
Now i have + & * register which has contents of clipboard & selection buffer respectively (Great info penguiniator).

I did
#apt-get install vim-full
Now I have
$ vim --version | grep -i clipboard

+clientserver +clipboard +cmdline_compl +cmdline_hist +cmdline_info +comments
+xterm_clipboard -xterm_save

I think x window selection buffer is the one we select using mouse in terminal or/and visual in vi & pasted in another application using middle mouse button while contents of clipboard using paste option.