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As example, my current buffer contains below lines
di=01;34
ln=01;36
mh=00
pi=40;33
I want to join all lines with :, and set entire buffer to the joined string.
How to achieve that, using :python command.
I tried below
py3 vim.current.buffer[:] = ':'.join(vim.current.buffer)
py3 vim.current.buffer = ':'.join(vim.current.buffer)
But neither works.
In vimscript, just as an alternative:
:1,$-1substitute/$/:
:global/^/join
In one line with abbreviated commands:
:1,$-1s/$/:/ | g/^/j
:python solution. BTW, need to change %s to 1,$-1s to match the join approach exactly. Alsokeepp and keepj can be used to avoid clustering search history & jumps, though only worth the effort if wrapped as a function or command.
– qeatzy
Sep 22 '19 at 0:58
vim.current.buffer refers to a buffer object.
vim.current.buffer[:] on the other hand, is a list of strings containing the content of the buffer.
You can manipulate the lines of the buffer by retrieving and assigning to this list:
py3 vim.current.buffer[:] = [ ':'.join(vim.current.buffer[:]) ]
Traceback (most recent call last): File "<string>", line 1, in <module> TypeError: bad argument type for built-in operation
– qeatzy
Sep 22 '19 at 0:50
:version outputs +python3/dyn , invoked by vim -u ~/tmp/.vimrc, cat ~/tmp/.vimrc outputs set nocp.
– qeatzy
Sep 22 '19 at 0:52
As @Mass's answer said, to set buffer content, you cannot assign to the buffer
object itself, you need to assign to the the sliced version, eg vim.current.buffer[:].
Currently what's missing from there is, you need to use a list of string instead of a string to assign to a sliced buffer object.
To summary
# set first line to a string
py3 vim.current.buffer[0] = "Hello world"
# replace whole buffer with a string
py3 vim.current.buffer[:] = ["a long long string"]
# replace whole buffer with two lines
py3 vim.current.buffer[:] = ["first line", "second line"]
# replace first 10 line with two lines
py3 vim.current.buffer[:10] = ["first line", "second line"]
