Append to register inside a global command

Question

I have a file whose content could be like the following:

foo1
bar1
foo2
bar2
bar3

I want to delete from the file all the lines matching the pattern ^foo and put them altogether somewhere else, possibly in a different file, using the p command.

I've tried using the command :g/^foo/"Ad supposing each deleted line would be appended to the register a. However the command doesn't delete anything nor appends anything to the register a.

What's wrong with the command I used? Store/append to register is not supposed to work inside a global command?

There are other commands I can use to achieve what I want?

Answer 1

You can to use the :normal command along with your usage of :global.

:g/^foo/norm "Add

Or you can use :delete ex command:

:g/^foo/d A

For more help see:

:h :d
:h :norm