Vim nested execute commands syntax

Question

I am trying execute a nested execute command within a vimscript. I know that this command works in ex mode:

g/\(^\n\|\%1l\).\_.\{-}\n$/execute "normal! vap:call MCformat()\<cr>"

I want to be able to run that command from within a script. I have tried a number of permutations of the following code but can't get it to work.

function! RunMCformat()   
  silent! execute "normal! g/\(^\n\|\%1l\).\_.\{-}\n$/execute \"normal! vap:call MCformat\(\)\<cr>\""

endfunction

Probably I am not escaping the string properly but I don't know where I am going wrong.

Ingo Karkat · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-30 14:24:54Z

3

Because of the double quotes, you'd have to escape (i.e. double) the backslashes inside the /.../ pattern definition. However, the biggest problem is the first :normal!; :g[lobal] is an Ex command. So, you're lucky, you can just prepend :silent! (which invokes Ex commands like :global), are you should be done; no nested :execute is necessary:

function! RunMCformat()   
    silent! global/\(^\n\|\%1l\).\_.\{-}\n$/execute "normal! vap:call MCformat()\<cr>"
endfunction

In general, I would avoid nesting of :execute; that's not readable in any case. Rather, extract parts of your code into a function / custom command (in which you can use :execute), and invoke that.

answered Jan 30, 2018 at 14:24

Ingo Karkat

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