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A fairly common operation for me in Vim, since I am compulsive-obsessive and like to keep my files free of whitespace, is to delete the contents of an entire line, but not the line itself (i.e. not the line break).
Is there a built-in Vim way to do this? Perhaps a d<movement command> operation?
So far, the best I have is (on the line in question) 0d$. Is there a quicker way?
You can use 0D this will go to the first character on the line and delete until the end of the line. Note that you can use ^D if you want to leave any preceding whitespace alone. Also, these operations cannot be repeated by using .. If you want an operation which can be repeated with the . command, refer to David Lord's answer.
Help topics:
:help 0:help D:help ^
. command. For that reason, I think cc<Esc> or S<Esc> is more attractive if you care about repeating.
..
Apr 29, 2015 at 13:23
.. They work as if those keystrokes were entered interactively, so individual commands are treated separately. Using . will repeat only the last command in the macro.
@{reg}, you can repeat it with . afterwards.
Apr 30, 2015 at 12:07
D. After a 0D operation, your cursor will be left in column 0. If your cursor is already on the beginning of the line (after you move to another one), it will look like the macro was properly repeated. Try moving the cursor forward in the line and typing . -- you'll see that it only repeats D.
cc <Esc> will do as you ask, but is more keystrokes than 0D. If you want to put something into that line afterwards, cc may be best.
. command. In contrast, 0D (as suggested in the chosen answer) is two actions: the 0 motion and the D command.
0D for me since I have jk mapped to <Esc> in my vimrc, so my hands wouldn't even have to leave the home row.
Apr 29, 2015 at 18:23
S and then Ctrl+C or Esc seems to accomplish the exact same function.
It can then be repeated with . as it constitutes a single action.
0D is probably what you want. It will delete from the cursor to the end of the line while leaving the line (and any characters before the cursor) in place.
0D will delete from the beginning of the line, not from the cursor position
I typically use ddO. dd to delete the current line, and O (that's a capital o) to add a new line.
This is also 3 keystrokes, but dd counts only as 1 and a half, and I find O easier to type than $ .
It's different from the 0D solution in that it does auto-indentation, for example with this code (where !··· is a tab, and █ the cursor:
def asd():
!···if foo:
!···!···foo()█
!···!···foobar()
0D will leave you with:
def asd():
!···if foo:
█
!···!···foobar()
And ddO will leave you with:
def asd():
!···if foo:
!···!···█
!···!···foobar()
And if you press <Esc> immediately after this, Vim should remove the auto-indentation, so you have the same as with 0D.
There is no 'correct' way, it will depend what exactly you'll want to do. I prefer ddO because it's more flexible, and because it's "in my fingers" :-)
O leaves you in insert mode, this is equivalent to cc, except without auto-indentation....unless your line was already auto-indented.
Apr 29, 2015 at 22:57
My preferred way to do this is: A<C-u>
This puts you into insert mode at the end of the line, and then deletes all characters behind the cursor (i.e. the entire line, except the newline). I like this more than other suggestions because it has been trained into my muscle memory—it is not more efficient, more practical, or really better in any way, but it is mine.
<Esc> to come back to Normal mode.
Nov 15 at 19:32
cc or C with the explicit purpose of entering text right away. It compares with them. But your remark is valid, this will end in insert mode.
Nov 15 at 19:41
S and the cc explicitly <Esc> in their answer as far as I can tell. But feel free to keep your solution as such. It was just a comment to talk ;-)
Nov 15 at 20:13
And to save that one precious key stroke you can use 0C which will delete all the characters on the current line and put you into insert mode.
:%s/\s*$//