Search and replace in vim in specific lines
VimVim Problem Overview
I can use
:5,12s/foo/bar/g
to search for foo
and replace it by bar
between lines 5 and 12. How can I do that only in line 5 and 12 (and not in the lines in between)?
Vim Solutions
Solution 1 - Vim
Vim has special regular expression atoms that match in certain lines, columns, etc.; you can use them (possibly in addition to the range) to limit the matches:
:5,12s/\(\%5l\|\%12l\)foo/bar/g
See :help /\%l
Solution 2 - Vim
You can do the substitution on line 5 and repeat it with minimal effort on line 12:
:5s/foo/bar
:12&
As pointed out by Ingo, :&
forgets your flags. Since you are using /g
, the correct command would be :&&
:
:5s/foo/bar/g
:12&&
See :help :&
and friends.
Solution 3 - Vim
You could always add a c
to the end. This will ask for confirmation for each and every match.
:5,12s/foo/bar/gc
Solution 4 - Vim
Interesting question. Seems like there's only range selection and no multiple line selection:
http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Ranges
However, if you have something special on line 5 and 12, you could use the :g
operator. If your file looks like this (numbers only for reference):
1 line one
2 line one
3 line one
4 line one
5 enil one
6 line one
7 line one
8 line one
9 line one
10 line one
11 line one
12 enil one
And you want to replace one
by eno
on the lines where there's enil
instead of line
:
:g/enil/s/one/eno/
Solution 5 - Vim
You could use ed
- a line oriented text editor with similar commands to vi and vim. It probably predates vi and vim.
In a script (using a here document which processes input till the EndCommand marker) it would look like:
ed file <<EndCommands
5
s/foo/bar/g
7
s/foo/bar/g
wq
EndCommands
Obviously, the ed commands can be used on the command line also.