A few examples of how to use :g in vim

This vim tip of the day is really good. I use the :g/pattern/d command occasionally, but there is a lot more possible. Here’s the tip:

VimTip 227: Power of :g http://vim.sourceforge.net/tip_view.php?tip_id=
:g is something very old and which is very powerful. I just wanted to illustrate the use of it with some examples. Hope, it will be useful for someone. Brief explanation for ":g" ------------------------- Syntax is: :[range]:g//[cmd] You can think the working as, for the range (default whole file), execute the colon command(ex) "cmd" for the lines matching . Also, for all lines that matched the pattern, "." is set to that particular line (for certain commands if line is not specified "." (current line) is assumed). Some examples ------------- Display context (5 lines) for all occurences of a pattern :g//z#.5 :g//z#.5|echo "==========" << same as first, but with some beautification >> Delete all lines matching a pattern :g//d Delete all blank lines (just an example for above) :g/^\s*$/d Double space the file :g/^/pu =\"\n\" :g/^/pu _ << the above one also works >> Copy all lines matching a pattern to end of file :g//t$ Yank all lines matching a pattern to register 'a' 0"ay0:g//y A Increment the number items from current line to end-of-document by one :.,$g/^\d/exe "normal! \" Comment (C) lines containing "DEBUG" statements g/^\s*DEBUG/exe "norm! I/* \A */\" A Reverse lookup for records (eg: An address book, with Name on start-of-line and fields after a space) :g/?^\w?p "if only name is interested :g//ka|?^\w?p|'ap "if name and the lookup-line is interested :g//?^\w?|+,/^[^ ]/-1p "if entire record is interested Reverse a file (just to show the power of 'g') :g/^/m0
Foot note 1: use :v to negate the search pattern Foot note 2: Some explanation of commonly used commands with :g :2,8co15 => Copy lines 2 through 8 after line 15 :4,15t$ => Copy linesa 4 through 15 towards end of document (t == co) :-t$ => Copy previous line to end of document :m0 => Move current line to the top of the document :.,+3m$-1 => Move current line through cur-line+3 to the last but one line of the document Foot note 3: Commands used with :g are ex commands, so a help search should be, :help : eg. :help :k