Find and replace all numbers with 0?

Question

Is there a command to find and replace all instances of a number in a file with 0 (including decimal numbers like 1.7)?

Answer 1

Based on the help file, and the Vim Wikia page on Search and replace

:%s/[0-9]\+\.[0-9]\+\|[0-9]\+/0/g

:%s - start a command with the range of the entire file, %, to substitute, the following patterns:

[0-9]\+\.[0-9]\+

This must come first, it's the pattern that covers decimals like 1.7. In addition it will only match a number followed by a period, without replacing the period. [0-9] is the collection for any digit. The \ is required to escape the special characters, +, which means match one or more occurrences. The . needs to be escaped, so that it doesn't take on it's normal meaning of match any character.

| means or, as in match the first pattern or the second, and must be escaped.

Then the pattern for any digit, one or more times, [0-9]\+ again.

/0/g

Finally, replace every occurrence of the pattern on the line with 0.

For example,

123
1.7
8
99
2.

becomes

0
0
0
0
0.