how to store a regex-capture-group as a variable in vim script?

Question

i'm trying to write a vimscript to refactor some legacy code.

roughly i have a lot of files in this format

$this['foo'] = array();
{
    $this['foo']['id'] = 123;
    $this['foo']['name'] = 'name here';
    $this['foo']['name2'] = 'name here2';
    $this['foo']['name3'] = 'name here3';
}

I want to reformat this into

$this['foo'] = array(
    'id' => 123;
    'name' 'name here';
    'name2' 'name here';
    'name3' 'name here';
);

where foo is variable.

I'm trying to match

$this['foo'] = array()
{

with this regex

/\zs\$this\[.*\]\ze = array()\_s{;

so i can execute this code

# move cursor down two lines, visual select the contents of the block { }
jjvi{

# use variable, parent_array to replace 
s/\= parent_array . '\[\([^=]\+\)] = \(.*\);'/'\1' => \2,

but of course i need to let parent_array = /\zs$this[(.*)]\ze = array(); which isnt the right syntax apparently...

TL;DR

function Refactor()

    # what is the proper syntax to do this assignment ?
    let parent_array = /\zs\$this\[.*\]\ze = array()\_s{;

    if (parent_array)
        jjvi{
        '<,'>s/\= parent_array . '\[\([^=]\+\)] = \(.*\);'/'\1' => \2,
    endif

endfunction

EDIT* fixed escaping as per commenter FDinoff

You also need to escape `$`, `[` and `]` in parent_array – FDinoff Jul 18 '14 at 19:38 — FDinoff, Jul 18 '14 at 19:38

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 18 '14 at 19:48

Assuming there's only one such match in a line, and you want the first such line:

let pattern = '\$this\[.*\]\ze = array()\_s{;'
if search(pattern, 'cW') > 0
    let parent_array = matchstr(getline('.'), pattern)
endif

This first locates the next matching line, then extracts the matching text. Note that this moves the cursor, but with the 'n' flag to search(), this can be avoided.

how to store a regex-capture-group as a variable in vim script?

1 Answers1