How can I write a range to a command, and then read the resulting output?

Question

I have an SQL file that I have to work on from the command line.

-- Query 1
select 1;
-- Query 2
select *
from metadata;

I've marked line 4 as a (4Gma) and line 5 as b (5Gmb), then execute :'a,'b w !mysql -u root db \| less to view the contents. I've mapped this snippet to F5 so that I can simply reset marks a and b and press F5 to see the result. This works fine.

What I want to do now is insert the results of the query into the document, much like what :r !cmd provides. I know I can replace %s in r !cmd, but %s is replaced with the filename, and I only want to execute the SQL query in the current range.

Is this possible, and if so, how?

Answer 1

There is a :h range! which I think will do the trick here.

:'a,'b!mysql -u root db

I tested it with sed on file with content:

line1
line2
line3

Vim commands:

1Gma
3Gmb
:'a,'b!sed -n '/1/p'

Result:

line1