Current line after :3,7call XYZ()

Question

Executing:3,7y does not change the line which contains the cursor (line('.')). This is what I expected.

However, when I execute :3,7call XYZ(), the current line goes to the third line. I didn't expect this behavior.

Why is that? Can I change the behavior so that the current line does not change?

Answer 1

One way to do this would be to pass current line as function argument. But line('.') is evaluated for first line of range, thus this needs to be done earlier. My solution to this would be to use user command. Below complete sample code:

function XYZ(curline) range
  [normal body]
  exe "normal " . a:curline . "gg"
endfunction

command -range XYZ :let l=line('.') | <line1>,<line2>call XYZ(l)

That way you need to do :3,7XYZ

Answer 2

The anwolib plugin provides (among others) a :KeepView command. With it, you can wrap any other command invocation, and it will maintain the current position in the buffer.

:KeepView 3,7call XYZ()