Search and copy the text between two markers in gvim

Question

I want to copy strings that spans across multiple lines between two markers in a large file.

In the below example file, start marker is <ROW> and end marker is </ROW>.

<ROW>
    <SOURCE>ANIMAL</SOURCE>
    <QTY>1.00</QTY>
    <UNIT_PRICE>123.75</UNIT_PRICE>
    <NARRATIVE>DOG100</NARRATIVE>
    <OUR_REFERENCE>BILLING</OUR_REFERENCE>
</ROW>
<ROW>
    <SOURCE>ANIMAL</SOURCE>
    <QTY>1.00</QTY>
    <UNIT_PRICE>150.00</UNIT_PRICE>
    <NARRATIVE>DOG200</NARRATIVE>
    <OUR_REFERENCE>BILLING</OUR_REFERENCE>
</ROW>
<ROW>
    <SOURCE>ANIMAL</SOURCE>
    <QTY>1.00</QTY>
    <UNIT_PRICE>170.00</UNIT_PRICE>
    <NARRATIVE>CAT300</NARRATIVE>
    <OUR_REFERENCE>BILLING</OUR_REFERENCE>
</ROW>
<ROW>
    <SOURCE>BIRD</SOURCE>
    <QTY>1.00</QTY>
    <UNIT_PRICE>200.00</UNIT_PRICE>
    <NARRATIVE>PARROT300</NARRATIVE>
    <OUR_REFERENCE>BILLING</OUR_REFERENCE>
</ROW>
.
.
.

I want to search and copy the string between <ROW> and </ROW> (including) that matches the text DOG

Example output

<ROW>
    <SOURCE>ANIMAL</SOURCE>
    <QTY>1.00</QTY>
    <UNIT_PRICE>123.75</UNIT_PRICE>
    <NARRATIVE>DOG100</NARRATIVE>
    <OUR_REFERENCE>BILLING</OUR_REFERENCE>
</ROW>
<ROW>
    <SOURCE>ANIMAL</SOURCE>
    <QTY>1.00</QTY>
    <UNIT_PRICE>150.00</UNIT_PRICE>
    <NARRATIVE>DOG200</NARRATIVE>
    <OUR_REFERENCE>BILLING</OUR_REFERENCE>
</ROW>

How can I do this in gvim?

Answer 1

If you have indent-object, you could do something like

:global/DOG/normal "Ayii

I haven’t come up with a simple vanilla answer yet, but maybe

:global/DOG/ ?ROW?,/ROW/yank A

@Lie Ryan reminded me of the at text-object, giving

:global/DOG/normal "Ay2at

Otherwise I’d use a dedicated XML parser and copy the output.

Answer 2

You can use the HTML/XML tag text object:

:g/DOG/norm v2at"AY

Or if you have a way to reformat the XML afterwards, then this shorter command also works:

:g/DOG/norm y2at

Both should work in standard vim without plugins.