~ / ex / line-rangeslesson 1/7

Line ranges: :d, :j and friends

Put a range in front of an Ex command to work on lines without moving to them.

?how it works

Most Ex commands accept a range in front of them. :4d deletes line 4 and :2,5d deletes lines 2 to 5, wherever the cursor happens to be. :7 on its own just jumps to line 7.

The pieces of a range:

a line number: 7
. the cursor line, $ the last line, % the whole file (same as 1,$)
an offset: .+2 two lines below, -1 one above, $-1 the line before the last
'<,'> the last Visual selection: press : in Visual mode and Vim types it for you
a pattern: /text/ is the next line containing text, so /begin/,/end/ spans the block between two marker lines

:{range}j joins the lines of a range into one, like J; :{range}j! joins them without adding spaces.

The gutter shows relative numbers on every line but the cursor line, so .+3 is simply the line marked 3 below you. A common slip: :25d deletes line 25, not lines 2 to 5. Don't forget the comma.

⌨keys

`:{N}`	jump to line N
`:{N},{M}d`	delete lines N to M
`:.,$d`	delete from the cursor line to the end
`:.,+{N}d`	delete the cursor line and the N below it
`:{N},{M}j`	join lines N to M into one
`:{N},{M}j!`	join lines without adding spaces
`:'<,'>`	range of the last Visual selection
`:%`	range of the whole file

3 drills

Delete a block of lines: Delete the lines that are gone in the target with a single :{from},{to}d, without moving the cursor there first.
From here to the end: Delete everything from the cursor line to the end of the file with one Ex command. . is the cursor line and $ the last one.
Join a range: Join the lines that are one line in the target with a single :{from},{to}j.

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