Using more than two line specifiers in an ex-range

Question

Under :help [range] it states:

Some Ex commands accept a line range in front of them. This is noted as [range]. It consists of one or more line specifiers, separated with ',' or ';'.

I am wondering if there is actually a command that takes more than two line specifiers. I can think of at most two.

When I try to use more than two line specifiers, all but the final two seem to be disregarded:

:8,10,20,11,5,9,13 #

lists lines 9 through 13.

So, is there actually a scenario when using more than two line specifiers are useful?

Answer 1

Almost right below your quote from documentation it also says:

When separated with ';' the cursor position will be set to that line before interpreting the next line specifier.

So while there seems to be no commands that are able to accept more than two specifiers, they still can be useful to adjust starting position of other specifiers.

Example

Consider a buffer like this with cursor positioned on the first line:

a1
b1
a2
b2
a1'
b2'

/2/,/a/,/1/ # finds this reversed range:

b1 # <-- match of /1/
a2 # <-- match of /a/

but /2/;/a/,/1/ # outputs

a1' # <-- match of both /1/ and /b/

because /2/; moved the cursor to the third line (a2) before running two other searches.

Answer 2

In the following range, the offset is calculated from "the current line" which may or may not be a match for /foo:

:/foo/,+23#

You can use ; to make the first line matching foo the first line specifier of your range:

:/foo/;.,+23#

which gives you three line specifiers.

You can use more semicolons to refine your range:

:/foo/;/bar/;/baz/#