How to validate and reference digraph /special character in Vim?

Question

I want to remove the ending section of my output that typically follows the below pattern:

^[[2D[^[D but my regex will not allow me to select the ^[ parts of the word. Note on my Vim that part shows in a different color almost like it is a a digraph or special character.

Any thoughts on how I can create a mapping to remove this from my outputs?

Note when I copied the output to my clipboard and pasted into my browser it translated the ^[ to ``

I am writing to you today as an email full of typos. Ye^[[2D[^[K
Yes, you heard that right – I'm a bit of a typo-ridden mess. But don't worry, I've got fa^[[2D^[[K

Answer 1

The special character ^[ is actually Esc.

If you want to include it in a regex you can type it using the following key sequence:

Ctrl vEsc

In general in presence of a special character you can discover its code using the ga command. Move the cursor on the character and hit ga.

The output gives you:

• The decimal code (27 in case of Esc)
• The hexadecimal code (1b in case of Esc)
• The digraph if any (EC in case of Esc)

You can use that information to reinsert the same character in insert mode:

• Ctrl v027
• Ctrl vx1b
• Ctrl kEC

Answer 2

Alternatively, you can just copy the offending text (yank into a register) and paste it into your replacement expression without knowing (or caring) what the special characters are.

:%s/CTRL-R0//g

See :help c_CTRL-R for details.