How to view the selected line number of the file. Mean i have the see the line numbers 1,4,8,12,16.....so on .
i can do with sed but can i do with cat or other simple command .
how can i select this thing in vi /vim editor.

Why do want to use some "simpler command" ?
IMHO you may end up using many cat/for/do..while loops when it could be easily done with sed/awk.

In the end, you may find using all these "simpler commands" quite complicated.

This is my opinion.

Regards,
Vikas

Are you asking how to select a line number in vi? If so just type ":<line number> example ":10" displays line 10.

You may be interested in the nl command.

:10 works fine in vi editor , But i need to see the alternate lines or some line sequence like line No.1,3,6,9,12,15,...etc Then is there any option for this in vi/vim editor.

By "line sequence", do mean arithmetic progression? (Your example would then be 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, ... or 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 ...)

If so, GNU sed can do it -- see the "first~step" syntax at http://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manu...html#Addresses.

You can certainly do such things with awk, which has a programming language built-in.

In this case... the "pattern" that would be used is a dummy, that matches all lines. You use the awk-maintained record counter variable, and the "modulo" operator, to determine whether to print the current record.

It's well worth remembering that Unix/Linux is loaded with tools like this, and programming-languages like perl. It pays to fool around with them.

Thank's for the Above links.

As we can do this things in sed . Can i do same things in vi/vim without using sed?

What exactly are you trying to achieve and why. It would make it easier for us to suggest appropriate answers/tools that way.
I suspect(!) that what you want is not possible in vi, but its not clear from your qn.
vi can only show you the contents of the file(s) you've opened. As said, you can go to any line, but if you only want to be able to see certain lines, you'd have to extract those lines and put them in another file.

You're welcome, dina3e, it's always nice to be appreciated here (or elsewhere); BUT you still didn't answer my Q about what you mean by "line sequence". Also, please do answer chrism01's Q about your goal -- he is right about us helping you better if we know where you want to go.


For those those who are wondering, sed -n '0~3p' & sed -n '1~3p' would display the arithmetic progression line sequences mentioned above.

As i like to work in vi/vim , so that i think is there any method available in vim that may process the filter's in the vim .
So that i asked such question & happy to get the answer.


I really Thank's to this forum from where i get lot of knowledge from other sites.

OP-

In vim...
And to turn off...
The 'nu' can be substituted with the full-word 'number'

If you want to go to a particular line number:
If you want to delete (or perform other operation on a range of numbers)...
I hope this answers your question.

dwhitney67,
Can you do the every nth (arithmetic progression) thing in vim?

dina3e,
You still haven't answered my Q about whether it's really an arithmetic progression you are asking about. This is crucial to properly answering your Q.

2nd clarification: If all you want want to do is "view the selected line number of the file", why does it matter if you use sed or vim? Familiarity w/ one is not normally a good enough reason to shun the other. Is this part of a larger problem that you haven't mentioned? Please explain.

Well, the vi command sequence "r! whatever" might prove useful.

dina3e,
You still haven't answered my Q about whether it's really an arithmetic progression you are asking about. This is crucial to properly answering your Q.

2nd clarification: If all you want want to do is "view the selected line number of the file", why does it matter if you use sed or vim? Familiarity w/ one is not normally a good enough reason to shun the other. Is this part of a larger problem that you haven't mentioned? Please explain.[/quote]

you are correct . That does not matter if you use the vim/sed .

The arithmetic progression , mean let's i want to see the odd lines in vim . And there is no such problem also if i use sed .

Thank's for all this discussion.