How to force macro keep running even pattern is not found?

Question

I have a macro to swap text.

For single line, it's running without problem.
But if I run this macro many times and one line is empty or different pattern, it will print below error and stop.

Is there a way to force it keep running even the pattern is not found.

Answer 1

You can use :try to do that (:h :try).

Here is an example (I didn't use your macro because you posted it as an image and it's not easy to copy :) )

let @z=':try|s/foo/bar/|catch||endtry^M'

(Note that ^M should be entered with ctrl+venter)

This way @z will try to make the substitution and if it fails nothing will happen. For example on this buffer:

foo
faa
fii
foo
faa

Using 5@z will substitute all of the foo.

Answer 2

Since you're using the s command, you could simply use the e flag. From :help :s_flags:

When the search pattern fails, do not issue an error message and, in particular, continue in maps as if no error occurred.

So, each of the s commands in your macro would look something like:

:s/bar/food/e

Answer 3

You can use a global command with optional regex, for example:

:g/a\|b/norm! @z

The command above will run the macro "z" only on the lines that have 'a' or 'b'

TIP: when setting your macro you can use double quotes to be able to use special keys like this:

:let @a="iHello World\<CR>bye!\<Esc>"