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I have a number of multi million line sets of data to edit before using a program to analyse them.
I have a set of regexp (23 of them) which do the work. Things like :%s/\n\n/\r to get rid of multiple blank lines
How can I turn this set of commands into a script?
You can add the following lines to your vimrc:
function! MyRegex()
execute '%s/\n\n/\r'
" Add other regexes here
endfunction
And you can then open your buffer and use :call MyRegex() to apply your regexes.
execute allows you to execute a command from a script (See :h :execute)
You might also want to have a look at :h substitute() which you can use from a script too.
vi to be an alias of vim. To check use :version in your editor and you'll see which software you are using. Also if you have the choice don't hesitate to switch to vim it has a lot more of features and is much easier to use. (But I really think you already use vim without knowing it)
– statox♦
Jan 20 '17 at 14:50
\r in the replacement text. It needs a ^M.
– Antony
Jan 20 '17 at 18:24
Sed stands for stream editor and it can execute regexes over files, line by line. A sed script would probably serve you better than trying to do something in vi, if vim is not an option.
Just put your regex lines (without the :% which is specific to vi) in a file, call it myscript:
s/\n\n/\r
s/other/example
...
Then run that file as a sed script over your target files like so:
sed -n -f myscript myfiles/*.txt
Statox's answer works better if you can use vim. If you're stuck with vi then try this.
