~ / macros / macro-on-many-lineslesson 3/6

Run a macro on many lines: :normal @a

Apply a macro to every line of a range, skipping the lines where it fails.

?how it works

:{range}normal @a runs register a once on every line in the range, starting each time at the beginning of that line. Some ranges:

:%normal @a — every line in the file
:'<,'>normal @a — the lines you selected (press : in Visual mode and Vim types '<,'> for you)
:g/pattern/normal @a — only the lines that match pattern

Why not just 99@a? A counted replay stops at the first failure. With :normal every line gets its own fresh start: if the macro fails on a blank line, a comment or a line without the character it looks for, only that line is skipped and the rest still run. The macro doesn't need a j at the end either.

⌨keys

`:%normal @a`	run register a on every line
`:'<,'>normal @a`	run register a on each selected line
`:g/{pattern}/normal @a`	run register a on each matching line
`{Visual}@a`	linewise Visual: run register a on each selected linenvim

Nin neovim

Neovim has a default mapping for this: in linewise Visual mode (V), @a runs register a on every selected line, just like :'<,'>normal @a. See :h v_@-default.

3 drills

Every line, failures skipped: Register a already holds a macro that uppercases the name at the start of a setting. Run it on every line with :%normal @a. Lines it can't handle (comments) make it fail, and :normal just moves on.
Just this paragraph: Run the macro in register a on the paragraph the cursor is in, and nowhere else. Select it with vip, then type :normal @a (Vim fills in the '<,'> range).
Only the matching lines: Run the macro in register a only on the lines that contain the text that marks them (compare with the target), using :g/{text}/normal @a.

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