How to paste columns vertically to columns with unequal number of characters

Question

We have two separate files:

f1.txt

17.0,
155.7,
1123,9,

and

f2.txt

1
2
3

After opening files vertically with vim -O ~/f1.txt ~/f2.txt

How to obtain?

17.0,1
155.7,2
1123,9,3

which is the equivalent of paste -d '' f1.txt f2.txt in bash

---

I tried all I could but in the end I got:

17.0,1
155.72,
1123,39,

So the column was pasted vertically but not appended to the end of the existing line.

Answer 1

I have answered a similar question here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/20050503/164835 But that question is not exactly same as this one, so I answer here once again:

in File1 do:

• :%right
• 0<ctrl-v>G$ -> column select all
• y -> yank

in File2 do:

• P -> paste
• :%left

Done!

It is pure vim solution, and goes pretty easy, looks like:

Answer 2

I'd rather use the paste command line tool, if you are using Linux/BSD/OSX:

paste -d '' f1.txt f2.txt

should do what you want. You can also read the result into the current vi buffer with :r!paste -d '' f1.txt f2.txt.

Vim's block-visual mode can be very useful but for CSV-ish data, I'd recommend paste or chrisbra/csv.vim.

Answer 3

Using a macro:

qq<c-w><c-w>y$<c-w><c-w>$p+<c-w><c-w>+<c-w><c-w>q2@q

1. qq: Start recording a macro,
2. <c-w><c-w>: Switch to second window,
3. y$: yank the contents of the line,
4. <c-w><c-w>: Switch back to first window,
5. $p: Paste at the end of the line,
6. +<c-w><c-w>+<c-w><c-w>: Move down a line in both windows,
7. q: End the recording,
8. 2@q: Replay the recording twice.

Answer 4

And here is another solution, probably not the most efficient one or the cleaner one but I had some time to make some vimscript:

function! PasteAtEndOfLine()
    " Check that the selection is blockwise
    if ( getregtype('"')[0] != '' )
        echo "not blockwise"
        return
    endif

    " Get the selection and split it on new lines
    let regcontent = getreg('"')
    let lines = split(regcontent, '\n')

    " Save the cursor position and the current line
    let save_cursor = getpos('.')
    let line_number = save_cursor[1]

    " For each line add the content of the register at the end
    " And go to next line
    for line in lines
        execute "normal A" . line
        let line_number += 1
        call setpos('.', [0, line_number, 0, 0])
    endfor

    " Restore the initial position
    call setpos('.', save_cursor)
endfunction

To use it you should:

• Visually select block wise the lines you want to paste from f2.txt: ctrl+vG
• Yank the text to the unnamed register: y
• Go to the first line of f1.txt
• Call the function: :call PasteAtEndOfLine()
• You're done