Questions tagged [visual-block]
Visual block mode enables users to copy and paste rectangular text. This mode is useful whenever a particular text is pasted to be pasted in every part of a rectangular text.
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How to paste below, not to the right nor to the left
Question
I think you see the problem... How can I paste directly below? Is there a way?
Setup
I have this table and I want to copy/yank the 3 × | in visual block mode and then paste it:
| sign | ...
- 172
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votes
2
answers
41
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Selecting and manipulating around visual blocks
I'm particularly interested in what the presenter, Damian Conway, in this talk is doing as he selects the end of visual-block to effortlessly add quotes.
In particular - what is happening around 36:57
...
- 101
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3
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52
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Replace every character on a visual selection with a register's character
I'll try to illustrate as clear as I can.
Suppose I have the following text open in vim/nvim
_________
| |
| 9999 |
| |
---------
If select 9999 visually and then hit r8, this ...
- 105
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1
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233
views
How can I have multiple cursors while entering insert mode after Visual Block mode?
Let's say I have some text:
ipsum
ipsum dolor
ipsum dolor sit
I want to add the word "Lorem" in front of each line.
Loremipsum
Loremipsum dolor
Loremipsum dolor sit
I can do this by:
...
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1
vote
1
answer
52
views
Replace arithmetic expression by their result
I am just trying to replace several arithmetic expressions inside a script file, which I cannot seem to find a simple solution for on the web.
Adapting this answer did not do the trick.
Suppose I have ...
- 155
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0
answers
62
views
How can I highlight in visual block mode all text between two delimiters over multiple lines?
I have a tab-separated spreadsheet and I'd like to highlight in visual block mode by selecting a character, expanding the visual highlight region to the whole entry between the two tab characters, ...
- 239
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3
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186
views
Insert non-rectangular selection
I repeatedly have the following situation, and wonder how it can be handled better than I do it now. These lines must be merged
/path;text
/path;text
/path;text
with these:
/subdir
/longsubdir
/...
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33
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How to selectively append to end of line using visual block mode?
I am trying to use visual block mode to append a , to the end of root_dir, where [] is the cursor.
lspconfig.html.setup{
root_dir = root_di[r]
}
lspconfig.cssls.setup{
root_dir = root_dir
}
I ...
- 588
1
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0
answers
220
views
Bulk file rename in Vim Visual Block Mode
I am using VIM Renamer plugin to bulk rename files,
I want to replace
E008_r5_Haz_Area_Class NAT GAS.pdf
E009_r4_Haz_Area_Class.pdf
E010_r4_Haz_Area_Class MP STEAM.pdf
E011_r3_Haz_Area_Class.pdf
...
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372
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How to center a block without centering its contents
For a visual block selection, the :center command will centre the contents of the selection, not the block as a whole. Is there a way to centre the block as a whole without misaligning the contents?
...
user33608
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2
answers
112
views
`set nrformats+=alpha` but only in visual block
I want to be able to increment letters but only in visual block mode. I don't want <C-a>/<C-x> to increment letters outside of visual block.
This is for making incrementing lists from this:...
5
votes
6
answers
613
views
Quickest way to put a single piece of text in multiple lines
Sometimes I have a bunch of lines, where there's a column clearly indicating some commonality between them, which in general doesn't go far beyond that column; this is an example, I think general ...
- 2,014
3
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1
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Need a functionality behaving like Replace on text but for Pasting Blocks
One of my vim usages is to do sketches of topologies in networking
I've found the script Draw it really really useful for that
So I can draw things like this by pasting these boxes
+------+
|ROUTER|
...
0
votes
1
answer
29
views
Understanding interaction between visual, autoindent, and paste option
Let's start form this faulty C++ source file
#include <vector>
int main() {
std::vector<std::vector<int>> v{
1,2},
9,3},
4,2}
};
}
which ...
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1
answer
445
views
How can I make backspace work in visual block mode?
I hit Ctrl-v3jShift-ixEscape, and x is correctly inserted on the current line and in the 3 lines below it in the same column. Good.
I hit Ctrl-v3jShift-iBackspaceEscape a character is deleted only on ...
- 2,014
4
votes
2
answers
6k
views
VIM - How to select multiple lines that are not adjacent?
If you have the following text:
line 1
line 2
line 3
You can hit CTRL+v on line 1 and hit j to select line 2. However, I want to select both line 1 and line 3, but not line 2.
Or, select multiple ...
- 141
1
vote
1
answer
165
views
Yank visually selected text: Keep virtualedit & avoid left/right padding
I use Cygwin's vim & gvim. I used to be able to do as follows.
Consider this file mk.bash, with no right-padding spaces:
// mk.bash
// -------
javac \
-classpath "/c/Program Files/MyJarFile....
- 825
2
votes
1
answer
72
views
bad comment behavior in cmake files
When I'm editing a cmake file in (neo)vim I'm getting bad behavior block inserting comment characters.
Given this section of text
install_license_file(
PACKAGE tomcrypt
TARGET ...
- 123
9
votes
3
answers
7k
views
How can I add text to the end of words on each line?
I have a series of single-word codes on separate lines in a text file. I'd like to add a backquote ( ` ) to the beginning and end of each word.
I know I can add a backquote to the beginning of each ...
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3
votes
3
answers
518
views
Paste a block-copy into a single line
I need to restructure a markdown table, and for that, I wish there was a quick way to "join" lines from a multi-line cell.
So with Vim, I would have to yank the block (Ctrl-v), and then ...
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212
views
How to delete and replace a block of text with spaces?
What I want to do
I want to select a block of text in Vim, delete it, and replace the selected block with spaces.
Example
Suppose I have the following text:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, ...
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84
views
Discrete Visual mode
A feature that I love in VSCode is to be able to use my mouse to click at multiple points in the screen and type with multiple cursors.
I am aware that in Vim you can do the same in visual mode, but ...
- 101
1
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1
answer
4k
views
In Windows 10, WSL 2, Windows Terminal, bash and VIM, how to avoid the conflict of <c-v>?
With the newly released Windows 10 update 2004, we can run native Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2 and install Ubuntu 20.04 on it. Then we can run native bash inside the latest Windows Terminal. ...
- 11
2
votes
1
answer
103
views
Put cursor at arbitrary line and column
Normal, insert, and visual modes restrict cursor movements to locations occupied by some characters. They don't allow moving to the right from the end of line and down beyond end of file.
For example:...
- 123
2
votes
1
answer
980
views
Select text in block-wise visual mode on each line asynchronously
If I have text like this:
cat = "john"
leopard = "frank"
tiger = "josh"
and I want to select the first word of each line in block-wise visual mode, I want to be able to do something like this:
put ...
- 447
1
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1
answer
971
views
blockwise visual mode multi line prepend doesn't work for me [duplicate]
I'm using nVim v0.4.3 and I'm having trouble getting multiline inserts to work in visual blockwise mode.
You can check this asciinema to see what I'm doing.
https://asciinema.org/a/...
- 113
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1
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41
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Search and replace visual block only? [duplicate]
How do I search and replace in a visual block only?
'<,'>s/search/replace/ works on entire lines, not visual blocks only.
- 936
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0
answers
36
views
Swap characters, vertically
Is there a handy way to do this?
My input:
# A
# - B
Desired output:
# - A
# B
My current solution is xjphxkP, which seems like a lot of keystrokes.
I realize I could record a macro, but it ...
- 111
1
vote
2
answers
149
views
Inserting text at the beginning of all lines selected in visual line mode [duplicate]
I have selected a JS block such as following:
function map(xs: string[], cb: Function) : string[] {
const result: string[] = [];
for(let i = 0; i++; i < xs.length) {
result.push(cb(xs[i]));...
- 145
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votes
1
answer
892
views
Paste a block in "replace" mode
This is best explained with an example:
Start by block selecting some text:
Yank and paste it somewhere else:
Note that the existing x characters were pushed over to the side, rather than being ...
- 713
3
votes
4
answers
730
views
Substitute figure by math
I have a file like this:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
0 1 2
I want to change a block-wise visual selection area, e.g. 5 and 8. I want to substitute them by multiplying the figures by 0.7 and I want to ...
- 141
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Trailing characters error in a substitution command
Suddenly simple find&replace stopped working in one particular case. I'm selecting the code-block in visual-mode, so the final command looks like:
'<,'>%s/someStuff/stuff/gI
I get the ...
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2
votes
1
answer
79
views
How does p really works as related to content put in registers?
I've read this question and answer already, however it could not solve my doubts.
As far as my understanding is correct, p always has the same effect (putting the content of a register, by default ...
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1
vote
1
answer
220
views
Gradient color background for visual selections
In this video from Bisqwit, the selected line is colored by a gradient according to column number. Image is below. He implemented the gradient in a custom terminal emulator. Is there any way to ...
- 141
2
votes
1
answer
174
views
Pasting modified register contents into Visual Block selection
Consider this mapping:
vnoremap <leader>U ygv"=toupper(@@)<cr>p
It will yank the current visual selection, select it back, and then put a modified version of it. In this case, uppercase ...
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2
votes
1
answer
139
views
Is there a function for blockwise visual selection in Vimcript?
I have two text files including steps, one is the main-file which has the entire steps and the other one is a sub-file has only part of steps. As follows.
[main-file]
SeqMain.txt
0001 K1G554 1 1 ...
6
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Jump *to* end of paragraph?
I often find I want to quickly select all the characters in an aligned column, something like this:
this.p = obj.['propery'];
this.prop = obj.['proper'];
this.proper = obj.['...
- 267
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vote
1
answer
133
views
Entering visual mode is selecting whole lines unexpectedly
I'm editing a small bash script:
d=$1
year=$(date -d"$d" +%Y)
month=$(date -d "$d" +%m)
day=$(date -d "$d" +%d)
hive -f /home/gavin_cameron/hive_queries/dc_player_daily_snapshot.hive -d ...
- 123
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How to indent or unindent lines in a block of text?
I use two spaces in my indentation of codes. What are the possible ways to indent or unindent a block of code?
- 153
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votes
3
answers
456
views
Selecting code chunk in Rmarkdown
I am writing an RMarkdown file, which is a document that is a hybrid of text and R code. Here is an example of what that document could look like:
Here is an example of text within my Rmarkdown file. ...
- 23
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votes
1
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44
views
Is there a way to determine whether the current / last visual block selection is non-rectangular?
One can create non-rectangular Visual-Block selections using C-v$ on files with lines of non-equal length.
Is it possible to programmatically determine whether the last Visual Block selection was non-...
- 265
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3
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1k
views
Is it possible to yank a column of text in vim without visual block mode?
Consider the following text file.
1 1 3
1
1
5
One can rank row 1 with the command y$ with the cursor on row 1, column 1.
However, to yank the first column, the only way I know is to <C-v>3jy.
...
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votes
3
answers
299
views
Is it possible to perform a visual block selection programmatically using line and column numbers?
I've looked around in :help V but haven't found anything of this sort, but was wondering if there's a function I can call from vimscript that would visually select a region based on (row, column) ...
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3
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2k
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Visual Block Mode edit with sequential number [duplicate]
Suppose I'd like to create a list
- "1"
- "2"
- "3"
what Is the smartest way to create such?
My attempt would be to i- "1"ESCyypp to get
- "1"
- "1"
- "1"
and then jump to the second line's 1 ...
- 213
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votes
5
answers
2k
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How to write on multiple places at once
I'm familiar with vertical blocks, and I often ctrl+v down down down shift+I foobar esc to write foobar in various locations at once.
This is useful if I want to replace <td> to <th> in a ...
- 143
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votes
3
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109
views
What's the simplest way to select the longest non blank vertical column in visual block wise mode? [duplicate]
assume you you have some text like this:
<-------unknown area
<-------blank lines
.....0.....<-------dot represent unknown character
.....1.....
.....*.....<-------...
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1
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2k
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Jump to bottom of block in Visual Block mode
I have some code that looks similar to this:
[
(Text),
(Text),
(Text),
],
I want to edit the lines that say "Text" by using Visual Block mode.
I can type ctrl-v on the first "T" and ...
- 187
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votes
0
answers
210
views
Blockwise pasting from "+ register not working
UPDATE: I run an X server (XQuartz 2.7.11) on MacOS, which I forward via ssh to any Linux machine I use. The problem seems to be that under XQuartz, the "+ register does not support blockwise yanking/...
1
vote
1
answer
119
views
How can I stagger text in vim?
Given the following text:
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
How can each line be shifted left/right an amount related to their line number? Desired outputs:
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
...
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3
answers
7k
views
Visual Block Mode: How to insert text to multiple lines after line ending?
Below example, first line is shorter than the other lines.
I want to insert \ to all lines at the highlighted place.
If I press CtrlC, jjj(select all lines) , Shifti, \, only first line changed.
How ...
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