Vim - Capture strings on Search and use on Replace

Question

I have a css selector such as:

#page-site-index .toolbar .items {

How do I capture the ".toolbar .items" part and use it on Replace part of Vim S&R, so this selector can turn into:

#page-site-index .toolbar .items, #page-site-login .toolbar .items {

Something like:

%s:/#page-site-index \(.toolbar .items\)/#page-site-index (the captured string), #page-site-login (the captured string)/g

Btw, I'm using the terminal version of Vim.

Lucas · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-31 13:27:12Z

23

Use \1... See the wiki here: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Search_and_replace

More explicitly:

%s:/#page-site-index \(.toolbar .items\)/#page-site-index \1, #page-site-login \1/g

edited Oct 31, 2019 at 13:27

answered Mar 27, 2013 at 15:47

Lucas

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3 Comments

user1410363 Over a year ago

Thanks! I've just had to change the (.toolbar .items) to (.\+), but your answer pointed me to the right direction.

Evgeny Over a year ago

the parentheses need to be backslashed

jtmarmon Over a year ago

to summarize: if you want to replace foobarbaz, fooquxbaz, fooanythingbaz with bar, qux, anything, do :%s /foo(.\+)baz/\1/g

Kent · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-27 15:56:20Z

2

try this command in your vim:

%s/\v#(page-site-index )(\.toolbar \.items)/&, #page-site-login \2/g

you could also use \zs, \ze and without grouping:

%s/#page-site-index \zs\.toolbar \.items\ze/&, #page-site-login &/g

keep golfing, if the text is just like what you gave in question, you could:

%s/#page-site-index \zs[^{]*\ze /&, #page-site-login &/g

edited Mar 27, 2013 at 15:56

answered Mar 27, 2013 at 15:50

Kent

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Comments

Ingo Karkat · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-27 16:02:12Z

2

You've already grouped the interesting parts of the regular expression via \(...\) in your attempt. To refer to these captured submatches inside the replacement part, use \1, \2, etc., where the number refers to the first (opened) capture group, from left to right. There's also \0 == & for the entire matched text. See :help /\1 for more information.

answered Mar 27, 2013 at 16:02

Ingo Karkat

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Comments

hek2mgl · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-27 15:47:38Z

0

First type the : the get into command mode. Then issue the following command:

%s/#page-site-index .toolbar .items/#page-site-index .toolbar, #page-site-login
.toolbar .items/

Don't care about the formatting, its because of the stackoverflow markdown parser....

answered Mar 27, 2013 at 15:47

hek2mgl

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2 Comments

user1410363 Over a year ago

Thanks, but there's a lot of other selectors in this file and I would like to replace them all with a single command.

hek2mgl Over a year ago

Yes this is specific for the question. Need to see the whole file to give a general answer.

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