Is there a function for blockwise visual selection in Vimcript?

Question

I have two text files including steps, one is the main-file which has the entire steps and the other one is a sub-file has only part of steps. As follows.

[main-file] SeqMain.txt

0001 K1G554   1  1 21-56 3  C- 2 1 0 0     0 D001
0002 K1H060   1  3 11-46 1 21-56 3 0 0 P   0
0003 K1G049   5  1 23-56 4  C- 4 1 0 0     0 D002
0004 K1H520   5  3 27-36 4 23-56 4 0 0 P   0
0005 K1G004  15  1 29-56 3  C- 6 1 0 0     0 D003

[sub-file] SeqSub.txt

001 000x K1G554  C- 2 1 AY-29 1
002 000y K1G049  C- 4 1 AY-19 1
003 000z K1G004  C- 6 1 AY-09 1

And I always have to modify the main-file to change the sequence of steps many times. Every time the main file was changed, the step numbers in the sub-file needs to be updated too.

Here is how I edit them by using VIM:

1.I sort the main-file by the column 46 :sort/\%46, put the cursor at row3-column1 and blockwisely visual select ctrl-v the row3-column1 to row6-column4 and yank y

0002 K1H060   1  3 11-46 1 21-56 3 0 0 P   0
0004 K1H520   5  3 27-36 4 23-56 4 0 0 P   0
0001 K1G554   1  1 21-56 3  C- 2 1 0 0     0 D001
0003 K1G049   5  1 23-56 4  C- 4 1 0 0     0 D002
0005 K1G004  15  1 29-56 3  C- 6 1 0 0     0 D003

0001
0003
0005

2.Then I open the sub-file vsplit SeqSub.txt, put the cursor at row1-column4, and paste what I just yanked on it 1vp.

001 0001 K1G554  C- 2 1 AY-29 1
002 0002 K1G049  C- 4 1 AY-19 1
003 0003 K1G004  C- 6 1 AY-09 1

I tried to write the steps above into a syntax file in vimscript or recording them q that I can source the script to complete the steps. The function execute normal! ... can do the same editting in normal mode. But in visual mode it did't work.

Does there any function for blockwise visual selection in vimscript? Or does anyone have a better solution to compare and update both files?

Answer 1

I get the gist of what you want to do now. First, sourcing a script is not a great way to manage reusable code. That's what functions are for.

As for what you have so far you are unnecessarily putting :execute in front of everything when you're already in an Ex execution context.

Here's a function that you can put in your vimrc and call with :call JoinColumn(). This is adapted from the code in your comment but has some necessary or recommended changes. And you may need to do some tuning of your own once you start testing (esp. the last line...your original command doesn't do what you describe).

func! JoinColumn()
    sort /\%46c/
    " yank visual block selection into reg 'a'
    norm! 2j^V^V2j3l"ay
    vsplit SeqSub.txt
    " paste reg 'a' into desired location
    norm! 1G3l"ap
endfunc

Note that where you see ^V^V is where you should type in the double Ctrl+V that we talked about. The first Ctrl-V is a special key that allows you to embed a control character in text. We're using another Ctrl-V here but the second key entered could be whatever control character you need. After you enter this you should see just a single ^V. See :h i_CTRL-V and :h ins-special-keys.

---

As an aside, various shell commands could do the same operation. Following is an example of such a command sequence in a form that you'd run in Vim.

:%!join -1 13 -2 1 -o 2.1,1.1,2.3,2.4,2.5,2.6,2.7,2.8 <(sed -E 's/D([0-9]+)$/\1/' # | sort -k13) %

Before you run you should have both files loaded with the file to modify in the current buffer and the other file as the "alternate" (i.e. hitting Ctrl+^ should jump between the two files).