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What is a good way to automate substitute commands in vim?

Suppose I have something like:

s/foo/bar/g

except much more complex and I want to run it on selected ranges without having to type the substitute command?

How can I save the substitute command and give it short convenient name that I can invoke it by?

Petr Skocik
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2 Answers2

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You can create a function with range supported, and in the function do the substitution. Also create a custom command to call the function with range.

However the easiest way I think, is creating an abbrev in your vimrc file:

cab RR s/foo/bar/g

thus, when you selected lines, or in command line gave ranges (like 3,5 or % ...) you press RR<space> the s/foo/bar/g will be filled automatically. You can do some adjustment or just press enter let it go.

Kent
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You could try mapping below pressing the space key twice on a particular word will autofill the substitute command with the word under the cursor and wait for you to enter the replacement name 

" super quick search and replace
nnoremap <Space><Space> :'{,'}s/\<<C-r>=expand('<cword>')<CR>\>/
nnoremap <Space>%       :%s/\<<C-r>=expand('<cword>')<CR>\>/

in your case just put the cursor on the foo word and press the space bar twice. You should see

:'{,'}s/\<foo\>/

Then type the word bar

'{,'}s/\<foo\>/bar

all occurrences of foo will be replaced by bar

byaruhaf
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