How to paste the content from dot . command

Question

Given the word foo in a text, if I type ciwbar<ESC> while recording it as a macro in w register and then type in the command line :<C-r>w it will brings me :ciwbar^[

However if i type :<C-r>. it will only brings me bar

But both commands, the @w and dot, are able to perform the change inner word bar in other parts of my text

Is there any way to get all the content from the dot as I got the w register? I would like to paste it and work to automate the last command in macros in some steps forward

Answer 1

As you said yourself there is a difference between a register like @w and . which is a command.

The . command is meant to repeat only simple, unit changes (as the doc says :h .: Simple changes can be repeated with the "." command.).

On the other hand, macros recorded in registers are meant to repeat more complex and longer changes (see help is at :h complex-repeat).

The behavior of the dot command is hard coded and does not use a register or a buffer which can be accessed by the user so there is no way to get what it will do as a vimscript string.