How to use substitution on register?

Question

Let say I've register which has string stored in it, but I'd like to use substitute command to change it.

For example I've 5x5 html table:

let @t='<table>'.repeat('<tr>'.repeat('<td>_</td>',5).'</tr>',5).'</table>'

and I'd like to replace placeholder (_) with some other data ideally by modifying existing register (not assigning to another).

I've tried the following syntax:

"ts/_/test/g
"@ts/_/test/g " with modifiable set

which doesn't give any errors, but it doesn't work as expected (in similar way as prefixing with % works).

What's the proper way of doing that?

Note that :help function-list is a very useful page ;-) There are also some other tags in that page, such as string-functions. — Martin Tournoij, Mar 24, 2015 at 13:47

Ingo Karkat · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-23 18:54:27Z

11

Ex commands work on the buffer contents; for register (or variable) contents, you need to use a corresponding Vimscript function (if it exists).

For :substitute, the equivalent is substitute() (that was easy, right?) So:

:let @t = substitute(@t, '_', 'test', 'g')

answered Mar 23, 2015 at 18:54

Ingo Karkat

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3

substitute() isn't completely equivalent to :substitute; the function behaves as if 'magic' is set and 'cpoptions' is empty, whereas the command will observe user-set values.
– tommcdo
Mar 23, 2015 at 22:05

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PhilippFrank · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-23 16:25:58Z

5

Apart from using the let-statement and dealing with vim-script, you need to paste it into a buffer and then yank it back to the register:

answered Mar 23, 2015 at 16:25

PhilippFrank

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2 Answers 2