Vim Tips Blog

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to merely display numbers
:set number

following will actually insert numbers but relies on external Linux utility nl
:new | r!nl # (where hash is alternate file name)

Vim Way
:%s/^/\=line('.'). ' '

Replace a marker line (contaning just the word mark) with the contents of an
external file doc.txt

" replace string with contents of a file, -d deletes the "mark"
:g/^MARK$/r doc.txt | -d

I use and love Cygwin but mostly use the standard Windows gVim (Gui Vim) rather than that supplied by Cygwin.

in my .vimrc I have

if has('win32')
source $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim
behave mswin
set shell=c:\\cygwin\\bin\\zsh.exe shellcmdflag=-c shellxquote=\"
else
set ff=unix
endif

You will probably prefer bash.exe rather than zsh.exe

I can then run zsh/bash scripts from the command line e.g.
:!grep blah blah

The Cream project maintains the latest version of VIM you can download it here . On the download page you can get latest version of VIM with or without Cream.

Cream is a free, easy-to-use configuration of the famous Vim text editor for Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and FreeBSD. It uses common menus, standard keyboard shortcuts, and has extensive editing functions for the beginner and expert alike.

The current version for win32 is gvim-7-2-303.exe they call this a one-click install

The Control-R mechanism is very useful:-
:h i_CTRL-R

Usually used for inserting the contents of a register 0-9a-z
but can also insert the following special registers etc

'"' the unnamed register, containing the text of the last delete or
yank
'%' the current file name
'#' the alternate file name
'*' the clipboard contents (X11: primary selection)
'+' the clipboard contents
'/' the last search pattern
':' the last command-line
'.' the last inserted text
'-' the last small (less than a line) delete
=5*5 insert 25 into text (mini-calculator)

In a csv file full of lines such
16 Prop_Description Property description, String 1000
(note that this is actually a space separated csv)

:%s#\(\d\+ \w\+\).*#\1#g

filters out all but the field number and name eg

16 Prop_Description

a regexp for normal comma separated csv would be

fred,joe,sid
"fred joe","sue","good boy

:%s/\([^,]\+\),\([^,]\+\).*/\1,\2/

The paste buffer is usually the easiest way to transfer text between VIM and another application.

" Redirection & Paste register *
:redir @* : redirect commands to paste buffer
:redir END : end redirect
:redir >> out.txt : redirect to a file
" Working with Paste buffer
"*yy : yank current line to paste
"+y} : yank to end of paragraph
"+yi{ : yank current paragraph
"*p : insert from paste buffer
" yank to paste buffer (ex mode)
:'a,'by* : Yank range into paste
:%y* : Yank whole buffer into paste
:.y* : Yank Current line to paster
" filter non-printable characters from the paste buffer
" useful when pasting from some gui application
:nmap p :let @* = substitute(@*,'[^[:print:]]','','g')"*pr