Visual Mode Examples: Replacing with external commands, searching, and blockwise operations with examples

in the last line the last time. The start of the text is the Cursor position. If the "$" command was used as one of the last commands to extend the highlighted text, the repeating will be applied up to the rightmost column of the longest line. Any count passed to the `.` command is not used. Visual mode |default-mappings| "@" and "Q" repeat a register for all selected lines if the selection is linewise. See |v_@-default| and |v_Q-default| for details. For example, given the text: 123(hello)321 456(world)654 456(NOT THIS)654 With register "x" containing the commands `yi(VP`, visually selecting the first two lines and typing `@x` produces: hello world 456(NOT THIS)654 ============================================================================== 7. Examples *visual-examples* *:visual_example* Currently the ":" command works on whole lines only. When you select part of a line, doing something like ":!date" will replace the whole line. If you want only part of the line to be replaced you will have to make a mapping for it. In a future release ":" may work on partial lines. Here is an example, to replace the selected text with the output of "date": > :vmap _a <Esc>`>a<CR><Esc>`<i<CR><Esc>!!date<CR>kJJ (In the <> notation |<>|, when typing it you should type it literally; you need to remove the 'B' flag from 'cpoptions') What this does is: <Esc> stop Visual mode `> go to the end of the Visual area a<CR><Esc> break the line after the Visual area `< jump to the start of the Visual area i<CR><Esc> break the line before the Visual area !!date<CR> filter the Visual text through date kJJ Join the lines back together *visual-search* Here is an idea for a mapping that makes it possible to do a search for the selected text: > :vmap X y/<C-R>"<CR> (In the <> notation |<>|, when typing it you should type it literally; you need to remove the 'B' flag from 'cpoptions') Note that special characters (like '.' and "*") will cause problems. Visual-block Examples *blockwise-examples* With the following text, I will indicate the commands to produce the block and the results below. In all cases, the cursor begins on the 'a' in the first line of the test text. The following modeline settings are assumed ":ts=8:sw=4:". It will be helpful to :set hls /<TAB> where <TAB> is a real TAB. This helps visualise the operations. The test text is: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz abc defghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz abcdef ghi jklmnopqrstuvwxyz abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1. fo<C-v>3jISTRING<ESC> *v_b_I_example* abcdefghijklmnSTRINGopqrstuvwxyz abc STRING defghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz abcdef ghi STRING jklmnopqrstuvwxyz abcdefghijklmnSTRINGopqrstuvwxyz 2. fo<C-v>3j$ASTRING<ESC> *v_b_A_example* abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzSTRING abc defghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzSTRING abcdef ghi jklmnopqrstuvwxyzSTRING abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzSTRING 3. fo<C-v>3j3l<.. *v_b_<_example* abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz abc defghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz abcdef ghi jklmnopqrstuvwxyz abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 4. fo<C-v>3j>.. *v_b_>_example* abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz abc defghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz abcdef ghi jklmnopqrstuvwxyz abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 5. fo<C-v>5l3jrX *v_b_r_example* abcdefghijklmnXXXXXXuvwxyz abc XXXXXXhijklmnopqrstuvwxyz abcdef ghi XXXXXX jklmnopqrstuvwxyz abcdefghijklmnXXXXXXuvwxyz ============================================================================== 8. Select mode *Select* *Select-mode* Select mode looks like Visual mode, but the commands accepted are quite different. This resembles the selection mode in Microsoft Windows. When the 'showmode'

This section gives some examples of using visual mode, including replacing selected text with the output of an external command like 'date', and creating a mapping to search for the selected text. It highlights the limitation of the ':' command working on whole lines and suggests a workaround via custom mappings. The section then provides examples of blockwise operations, demonstrating how to insert, append, shift, and replace text within blocks using specific commands and the effects on the test text.