Goat command

Command structure resembles substitute command- :g/re/command will run command over all lines (not words) matching the regular expresson pattern re

NOTE

You can also run the command on all lines NOT matching the pattern re with command :g!/re/command

1. Print matching lines

• :g/re will print at the bottom of the screen all lines matching pattern re (default command p is used here)
• The same result can be achieved with :g/re/p

2. Delete matching lines

• :g/console/d _ deletes all lines matching pattern console and puts them in black hole register _
• :g!/console/d will delete lines not matching pattern console

3. Play macro

• :g/pattern/normal @a plays the a macro on all lines matching pattern
• :g/pattern/normal A. appends a dot . on all lines matching pattern

4. Grep tricks

• :g/console/g/two/d is an example of recursive command
  • console first matches lines containing console
  • and then second g filters out matches containing two from the earlier matched
  • then applies d command
• :g/pattern1/,/pattern2/command makes Vim will apply the command within pattern1 AND pattern2
• ^$ matches empty lines (with no character)
• :g/^$/,/./j basically matches empty lines (^$) and non empty lines (.) and joins them (j)
• Delimiter can be changed like the substitute command, use any character except for alphabets, numbers, ”, |, and .
  • :g@console@d deletes all lines containing console

5. Combine g and s

• g and s command can be conviniently combined
• :g/one/s+const+let+g matches lines containing one
• and then uses the substitute to replace const with let (last g for applying substitute on all matches within the matched lines)
• one could also use g/one/s/const/let/g

6. Copy and move

• :g/TODO/t $ copies all lines matching pattern TODO at the end of file (:h :copy)
• Invert also works, :g!/TODO/t $ will copy everything except TODOs at end of file
• :g/TODO/m $ moves all TODOs instead of copying them