Renumbering in Vim: g<C-A> won't work in vimscript function

Question

I'm trying to use the feature g<C-A> in a vimscript function to renumber a visual selection-ed list, but it never does the renumbering.

function! ReNumber() 
     execute "normal! g$\<C-A>"
endfunction 

I've tried incorporating the notion of range as suggested by this and this.

function! ReNumber() range
     execute a:firstline .. ',' .. a:lastline .. "normal! g$\<C-A>"
endfunction   

I have tried using a remapping for g<C-A> and it does work, but unsure if I could use the remapped key in my vimscript function

vnoremap <C-H> g<C-A>

How do I use g<C-A> in my vimscript function, when I call the function on a visually selected chunk of text?

Answer 1

To renumber till the end of the buffer I would do:

:normal! VGg^A

Where ^A is inserted using Ctrl va Or

:execute "normal! VGg\<C-a>"

If you want to trigger it from an existing selection you could do:

vnoremap <F6> g<C-a>

Or using the normal command:

vnoremap <F6> :<C-u>normal! gvg<C-v><C-a><cr>

• the <C-u> get rid of the '<,'>
• the gv restore the selection
• the <C-v><C-a> insert the ^A character in the command line.

g<C-A> is only working in visual mode.

It increments the first number of each line in the selection by a number (1 for the first line, 2 for the second line, ...).

If a count is provided the first number of the first line is incremented by count, the first number of the second line by 2 count, ...

More information with :help v_g_CTRL-A.