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Is it possible to use vim find and replace to replace a variable with the current filename? for example, fancyFileName.txt contains

this is the VARIABLE to replace in this fancyFileName.txt

and I am trying to use something like :%s/VARIABLE/expand(%)/ to get

this is the fancyFileName.txt to replace in this fancyFileName.txt

2 Answers 2

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As pointed out in other answers, :help sub-replace-special, and :help \=, you can use any expression as the replacement text like so:

:%substitute/\<VARIABLE\>/\=expression/g

In your case:

:%substitute/\<VARIABLE\>/\=expand('%')/g
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    I check this as the answer because it is easier to write (at least for me). However I spent some time with help \=, which didn't help, until I realized the explanation is in the answer by Christian. It might be word pointing to it more clearly in the answer? Thanks!
    – manolius
    Commented Apr 21, 2022 at 8:25
  • @manolius great feedback, thanks. Is the new version better?
    – D. Ben Knoble
    Commented Apr 21, 2022 at 13:39
  • Yes! much appreciated for all the effort!
    – manolius
    Commented Apr 21, 2022 at 15:10
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Assuming you have defined VARIABLE as a global Vim Script variable like this:

:let g:VARIABLE='fanceFileName.txt'

you can then use:

%s/\<VARIABLE\>/\=get(g:, submatch(0), '')/g

This uses the special atom \= to evaluate the following as a VimScript expression using get(g:, 'VARIABLE', '') to access the variable from the global dictionary :g

See also :h sub-replace-special

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