function with one argument that search for word and then replace something on that line

Question

I want to create a custom function that:

• Take 1 argument
• Search for a word
• On that line do a movement like f@
• change till " (ct") with the argument I provided

Example:

Library "sharedLibrary@xyz"

command zyv should produce

Library "sharedLibrary@zyv"

Answer 1

If you're comfortable with ex-commands, you can use something like this in your function

function MyFn(replacement) abort
  /word
  substitute/@\zs.\{-}\ze"/\=a:replacement/
endfunction

We search for word, then substitute everything between @ and the first " (hence non-greedy matching with \{-}) with the argument a:replacement.

With functions/:normal!, it would be something like

call search('word')
execute printf('normal! f@ct"%s', a:replacement)

Which I think is a bit harder to read.

---

Another alternative would be to use a macro: I won't save/restore it, but that's not hard to add.

let @q = '/word<C-v><CR>f@ct"'.a:replacement.'<C-v><esc>'
@q

But I don't know of a good way to avoid embedding the control characters literally (you have to type Ctrl-V and the corresponding key (enter, escape) inside the string).