Uncomment multiple lines

Question

In vim I can use for instance 10j to go 10 lines down. And I can use . to repeat the last deletion.

Now, in bash script I have many commented lines like this:

# ...
# ...
# ...
# ...
# ...
# ...
# ...
# ...
# ...
etc...

Say, there are 52 such lines. Is there a way to combine moving 52j and repeating the deletion of the # via x and delete 52 lines at once?

Answer 1

I do approve @mMontu comment suggesting to use a comment plugin (vim-commentary is an option but NERDCommenter has my preference over vim-commentary).

But you could do it in other ways:

• First if all your # are aligned on the same column you can block select them with ctrl+v52j and then delete your selection with x.

• If they are not aligned you could use a macro:

  qq^xjq
  
  qq        Record a macro in the register q
  ^         Go to beginning of line
  x         Suppress the first character
  j         Go one line down
  q         Stop recording
  

  You can then repeat your macro as many time as necessary with 52@q

• And with NERDCommenter:

  • Select your 52 lines with v52j
  • Use the NERDCommenter mapping to uncomment your lines: leadercu

For more details:

• :h blockwise-visual
• :h recording

Answer 2

I like the approaches statox suggested. Here's another one:

52:norm x

This only works if the # is the first character on each line. Otherwise, I would do

52:s/#

These two work very similarly. Essentially, what <count>: is doing, is setting up a range so that the next ex command is applied to the next <count> lines. norm x means

Press 'x' as if it was in normal mode

which would obviously remove the first character on that line.

s/# is just shorthand for :substitute/#// which will remove the first # character on each line.

Answer 3

Having a space with the commenting character?

Assumptions : commented lines are continuous and commenting character (# in your case) is at beginning of all those lines.

1. Come to the beginning of the first commented line.
2. Press Ctrl+v 👉 switches to visual-block mode.
3. Type 52j 👉 selects beginning of next 52 lines.
4. Use h / l or ◁ / ▷ respectively 👉 selecting multiple columns.
5. Press x 👉 deletes the selection.
6. Press Esc 👉 back to normal mode.

References: What's a quick way to comment/uncomment lines in Vim?

Namaste 🙏