How to replace all buffer content by some string?

Question

For example, if I run some external program (formatter) from vim and write result of it to some variable:

let result=system("some_program", getline(1, "$"))
" do something with result

How I can replace all current buffer content by the result?

PS result must be same as %!some_program, but I can not use this. If program failed it return not 0 code and error message with line and column of error, I use this message for create cbuffer. So I need write result of program to variable, check return code and handle it.

Answer 1

You can try this:

silent let result=systemlist("some_program", getline(1, "$"))
" do something with result
" cleanup buffer
normal! gg_dG
call setline(1, result)

Or this:

silent let result=system("some_program", getline(1, "$"))
" do something with result
" cleanup buffer
:%delete _
call setline(1, split(result, '\n'))

If you want specific buffer to be replaced, use setbufline and adjust "cleanup buffer" command.