This VIM trick BLEW MY MIND

[@frknue]

thanks nerd

[@SilentPongo]

nerd

[@G36_maid]

nerd

[@_Grish]

Another approach is to press qA (where A is the capital letter of the register where you saved the macro) and then press J. This appends J to the end of the sequence, resulting in: A,^[J

[@lileightright]

wow this actually works

[@olivierbegassat851]

Does this allow you to append a single character or more ?

[@olivierbegassat851]

Oh, you can append as much stuff as you want :D

[@lileightright]

@@olivierbegassat851 yeah no limit amazing stuff

[@_Grish]

Fun fact: This isn’t exclusive to macros; it works for registers in general! You can use this trick to append text while yanking, for example: 1. Yank a line with yy 2. Append another line to the same register with "Ayy" Now register a contains both lines.

[@Rizhiy13]

BTW, you can just use `%s` as the whole file selector and replace newline with comma space: `:%s/ /, /`

[@Windeycastle]

Yes, there are multiple ways to do all these tasks, and knowing more then 1 often comes in handy!

[@canyonblue7735]

I tried to resist coming to the comments section just 30 seconds into the video and recommending this method but couldn't do it. Since you already did I'll just comment and like. 😃

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Vi is the same way, there's just so much stuff that's baked in even before you run the entire file through sed or awk.

[@warrenrexroad1172]

Don't forget the `| s/, $/` on the end to remove the trailing comma if the file ended with a newline!

[@drishalballaney6590]

a lot of times I Just use substitution instead of macros XD

[@achimwasp]

You can even use @a at the end of the macro itself (so end the recording with @aq) - just make sure the "a" register is empty before recording (by typing qaq). Once called, it will repeat itself to the end of the file. In this specific example you would end up with a comma at the end, though, which is probably not what you want.

[@typecraft_dev]

Excellent

[@kode4food]

I try to avoid yanking all over the place, for legal reasons

[@user-fed-yum]

Tip: after you invoke @a the first time, which requires three button presses, you can then just press "." by itself to repeat the last command. One button press; and hold the key down for auto repeat. Helping those oldies with much more than 15 years programming experience, and their arthritic wrists and hands 😂

[@cool_scatter]

or just type a number first to do it that many times

[@olivierbegassat851]

For me the '.' doesn't work with macros ... I can repeat the same macro with @@ though.

[@CNich90]

Yeah same, at least in vscode vim extension the “.” doesn’t repeat macros for some reason.

[@ChrisCox-wv7oo]

. repeats last edit, last edit was a join, not the macro call. @@ is where it's at

[@CNich90]

@@ChrisCox-wv7oo thanks man for the clarification

[@josephangelodelosreyes4206]

this is what i love about vim. you think you're efficient already, but there's always a new neat trick to learn every so often. :)

[@typecraft_dev]

Very true!

[@GinoFazari]

A couple extra tips: - To append to a register you can use the capitalized letter "Ay - In this case add to the macro with qA - If you need to edit it, you can paste straight from the register with "ap

[@Windeycastle]

Thanks nerd!

[@magno5157]

I don't understand. What's the difference between "appending" and "adding" to the register?

[@GinoFazari]

@@magno5157 same thing, i just used different words for some reason.

[@Egzvorg]

​@@magno5157it's just different phrasing, I think, but you can either use qA or "Ay

[@modernkennnern]

​@@magno5157Appending means to "add to the end of"

[@LoricBrevet]

In kakoune, that would just be: `%i,` (for selecting the whole buffer, joining lines and making a selection for each space inserted, and then inserting a comma and return to normal mode)

[@Temet79]

That's huge as I can basically have a "macro.txt" file where I can save a bunch of macros and then just open the file and copy the actions in registries... love it.

[@lileightright]

i love learning this native vim things rather then spamming plugins into my workflow, thanks

[@theIbraDev]

It’s so intresting seeing you film this live on twitch. Such an inspiration

[@typecraft_dev]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ChrisCox-wv7oo]

"I've yanked all over the place" phrasing!

[@NElectronicSoul]

it's all that item 8!

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@NElectronicSoul As long as it's not a random assortment of =,D and 8, it should be fine.

[@noitibmar]

the number of times I've deleted a line to paste something in its place only to realise I just copied that line and pasted it back... Sideaffect of this video is I now know how to access multiple clipboard buffers and I will be abusing that. fantastic video

[@typecraft_dev]

Yes!! Tons of registers that hold a lot of info

[@aliventurous]

One way to avoid this is to use "0p which will paste the last thing you yanked. I tend to use visual mode to highlight the thing I want to paste over, instead of deleting and pasting

[@modernkennnern]

It takes time getting used to not deleting then pasting, ye 😂 Just Vp instead

[@Egzvorg]

​@@aliventurousif you use `:h v_P` for pasting it won't put the overwritten line in the default register, allowing you to repeat the replacement.

[@bambitsunami4165]

You can also use ctrl-f to edit command-line mode commands or searches using vim motions! Eg :”compliaced command with mistake” then “ctrl f” to edit, then enter to run. Works with /“complicated search” too i think. the edits happen in whats called the “command-line window”. ctrl c (or :q) exits the command-line (or search) editing mode. (ie it exits the “command-line window”). edit: to learn more run “:help c_CTRL-f”!

[@rugmj]

This is so useful thank you

[@bambitsunami4165]

@@rugmj you’re welcome! to learn more run “:help c_CTRL-f”

[@MatthieuPETIOT]

In normal mode you can do q: to get last commands, q? or q/ to get last searches.

[@Egzvorg]

it's command-line window. Command mode is a synonym for Normal mode.

[@bambitsunami4165]

@@Egzvorg oh interesting, thanks! i corrected my comment to say “command-line window” instead of “command mode window”, and “command-line mode” instead of “command mode”

[@henrymisc]

Man, Vim never seizes to surprise me. There's always more to learn!

[@DaneBurchette]

I literally found out about this same thing a couple weeks ago and it changed my life. I love these tricks with vim

[@vivianludrick03]

Coincidently, I learned the same trick this week and was like "ig this vim journey ain't ending soon"

[@no_name4796]

here's an other random trick you probably don't know: ctrl+6 to go to the previous buffer (very useful when you have two buffers and need to go back and forth)

[@KENTOSI]

@@no_name4796 That's super useful! Thanks.

[@ildarakhmetgaleev]

In Helix this task could be done like: % - select all; - split selection by new line; ( - make last selection the active one; - deselect active selection; a, - add coma after each remaining selection; - collapse line after each remaining selection; ;, - reset selections to single character cursor. The trick with macro as buffer also works in Helix.

[@Hellbending]

This absolute CHAD, 0 care havin' ass beast, actually listed god damn 'meth' in his supposed shopping list. Your humor bro - I'll never get tired of it 🤣🤣🤣

[@typecraft_dev]

Unfortunately Whole Foods was out of stock :(

[@Hellbending]

@@typecraft_dev they keep it out the back- a bit towards the alley generally. Should be a guy somewhere around there but he won’t be wearing employee attire, they allow free dress.

[@steeltormentors]

There's a grandma somewhere in his shopping list...I don't know what to make of that 😮

[@silak33]

You could also have tried qA. Like when you yank into an upper case registry it will append what you do to the registry rather than overwriting it.

[@edonan85]

very useful, thank you!

[@MatthieuPETIOT]

Thanks, this one is very useful.

[@lian1238]

Only nerds would know this. I am now a nerd. 😂

[@jefferyosei101]

Can't wait to see this channel grow. You're awesome 🎉

[@typecraft_dev]

Thanks!! 100k here we come!

[@aidhoss]

In addition to others mentioning appending to the a register/macro using `qA`, you can also append to it a call to play itself back with `@a`, so the full a register becomes `A^[J@a`. Then play it once and it will continue recursively calling itself, joining lines until there are no more to operate over and then it will exit.

[@BergenVestHK]

I know the video is about editing registers, but I see several people here talking about different methods of joining lines, so I'll just add mine. To join all lines with a comma inbetween, my go-to is to just do: :%!paste -sd, It rolls off the fingers so fast, it's done within a second. And it takes the whole file in one swoop, no need to record a macro and play it back X amount of times. The only drawback (at least for my use case) is that it can only take one delimiter (in this case a comma), so if I want, let's say, both a comma and a space, I need to do something else. But for my use case, which is just joining lines with a comma, this is sooo smooth.

[@abag0fchips]

i get this tutorial is for editing vim buffers and it was just an example, but the actual easiest way to do this is to type ":%s/ /, " instead. substitute, match newline, replace with comma space.

[@lileightright]

this is nice its working but if there is other content in the buffer it will apply to all.

[@DeathStocker]

You can also apply the substitution to a visual selection

[@abag0fchips]

@@lileightright yeah but in the event you have more lines with different content you can use more specific regex to describe the lines you want to modify. You can also use a format like this to only modify what you have selected in visual mode :%s/\%VSEARCH/REPLACE/g

[@lileightright]

@@abag0fchips i tried this when highligheted but for some reason it not working :'

[@Noname-67]

If you select your area and type the colon, the command line will become `:'

[@WillEhrendreich]

great stuff, keep it coming! I'd love more macro and vim regex magic stuff.

[@tintindb]

First. Fantastic content! Second. Really funny I had to do this about a month ago and as you put it vim is an amazing piece Of tech. After I did the macro I had to to restrain myself from burning incense and chanting. Third. Not to dump on vim but you can do the same thing with Helix. But that is black magic of which we shall speak of no more. Requiring sacrifice... But let us speak no more of it! Fourth: cigarettes? Lol.

[@kacperkwasny3848]

woooow sooo cool. I realy feel that youtube finally got saturated with 101 tutorials and more content on advanced stuff is being created! Soo cool :D

[@typecraft_dev]

More to come!

[@CNich90]

This was a revelation for sure lol really takes the mystery out of vim macros, I use them all the time but now it makes sense how it works under the hood.

[@fgodek1964]

If the list is large, you can also call another macro at the end of your macro to make your original macro repeat. For example, if macro a is A,^]J@b and macro b is @a, it will repeat macro a until the list is done. I've done this in vi since back in the 1980s.

[@KingZero69]

that’s a cool tip, and i actually use this all the time… but you should have ended it by saying you can just type “7@a” and get all the lines to concat in one command by multi-running the macro instead of having to type “@a@a@a@a…” like a goon 😏(it’s also useful to know “@@“ reruns the last macro you ran)

[@JarheadCrayonEater]

I've been a developer for 38 years. Hearing "15 years" and then "I'm getting so old" was ridiculous.

[@luquest1848]

46 for me, you young whippersnappers XD (no cap!

[@JarheadCrayonEater]

@@luquest1848, ha! I just turned 47! Yep, got it right!

[@legion_prex3650]

me too!

[@ozkifovxvypyvp3574]

Probably already been mentioned that you can execute a macro multiple times by putting a number before invoking a macro, eg - 10@a. Didn't know about manually editing a macro, that's cool, same with the register view. Always something to learn with Vim.

[@JamesDHendrickson]

When you said what's the easiest way to put all of these onto one line with a comma and a space delimiting them all I could think of was ":%s/ /,\ /g" and I got mildly gruntled (I know it means happy but it's funnier than disgruntled) when you mentioned macros... until my autistic ass realized you were just using it as an excuse to teach about editing macros, lovely video, it got my sub I enjoyed your presentation.

[@thecoderguy_0001]

you can go to visual or visual-line mode and select till the second last(ig) and do a single @a instead of pressing multiple @a 's

[@ChrisCox-wv7oo]

Because you are modifying line count as the macro is run, this does not work.

[@tristansnow]

You pasted the register using the :put command, and I hadn't seen this before. I just use the inverse of yanking to the register, and paste from it using: "ap to paste from register a.

[@koushikm]

I can't explain how many doors this opens for me. I never get macros first time right - that alone is a big win. Thanks a lot!

[@typecraft_dev]

Love hearing comments like this! We love shining a light on techniques that are easily missed or overlooked.

[@FoWDarthLi]

I know about this for a long time, but I rarely use it because it's mostly shorter to just do the macro again. If your macro is simple it doesn't take long to just do it again. If it's long and you edit the macro as text you don't see what will actually happen during editing and will often do a mistake so again it's often faster to just do the macro again.

[@luccaugusto]

i'd j CTRL+V G I , gg 7 J. Love macros but that's what came to mind first, to me it's a bit more intuitive than making a macro. Loved the trick too, didn't know it before

[@petrpechkurov3095]

It could also be C-V G $ A , 7 J

[@panosp57]

I hate the fact q was used for this as I often end up wanting to quit and instead I'm now fighting to get out of the macro input/mode

[@ChrisCox-wv7oo]

don't fight. just quit. macro recording isn't inhibiting you.

[@OfficialSkankyRich]

Keep yanking fellas!

[@nerdydrow]

you can also press a number before @ to tell vim to run the macro that many times like 6@a

[@romanaxle]

“I’m yanking all over the place” Same, buddy. Same.

[@bambitsunami4165]

Also @: and @@ are cool! @@ repeats the last macro and you can also do @: to redo the last command mode command! Eg :vsplit, then @: to repeat :vsplit, and then @@ will repeat it more haha. although, : also redo’s a command, and might be faster for one redo, i like @@ for multiple redo’s. i think i can even give it a count like 5@@.

[@no_name4796]

Prewatched the stream

[@typecraft_dev]

Hell yeah

[@SteveWaltersY]

You had me at "Whole Foods" purchase... did not know they had cigs and meth. Guess I need to get out more.and get me a grandma ;-) - love your vids.

[@typecraft_dev]

Whole Foods has the organic stuff. It’s a little pricey but worth it

[@baronvontrap3325]

I didn’t know that you can edit macros either and I’ve been using vi/vim since 1988 …

[@muddyexport5639]

Good news, thanks!

[@Hornet1806]

Macros are good for later-replayability but I rarely use them. Instead for something like this I'd use visual-column mode or substitute. %s/ /, /g, A does the trick. Or gg, ^v, G, $, A, ,, , G, $, x . Takes ~1s to type that out once you understand what you're doing.

[@ozkifovxvypyvp3574]

Was going to say this as well. Visual mode has some fun tricks that work out nicer in my opinion that macros for certain things and is easier to do than remembering vim regex specifics.

[@suede__]

When you run the macro you can also tell it the number of times to run like when moving down multiple lines

[@readyplayer2197]

Im not joking, my cat just subscribed to your chanel. I didnt know it knew vim.

[@yinjs]

less steps to modify register 1. command mode type let @a=‘ 2. ctrl+r a 3. edit macro, then add ‘ at the end, press enter

[@CarlosReyes-ku6ub]

Dude, you're almost 100k, I miss the early days when we talked about Emacs...

[@michakozio7460]

This is why '@:' will replay your last command mode action. You can think that '@' as 'play' and then submit the register with the contents to execute. And the ':' in this case is your last action from command mode.

[@IsraelFraga]

this is a cool feature, but it's also something that i never had the change to use well tbh, i use a alt layout and had to move hjkl around, so editing registers is quite the mental work to translate everything. maybe the langmap feature should also do this translation, but macro just doesn't work with it, i may try to get the repo and try out some ideas for this situation 🤔 bonus thing: Q can be a macro for @q, so i always use it as a quick macro register thanks to it. a macro to start a macro? is this macroception?

[@luispedrocamacho]

Thanks for sharing!

[@prdoyle]

Vim is hard to learn and hard to master, but there's this huge inbetween phase where you're super productive.

[@bagfleet]

Great vid, thanks nerd!

[@typecraft_dev]

thanks, nerd

[@urizen959]

OG knows title was changed and still rewatch it again cos why not

[@gh0stzk-dotfiles]

How not to love this guy!

[@edding8400]

"Grandma" is on the shopping list

[@7XhpN2opPfjS9Ua9Gn8ALyuK]

so "meth" in the list not surprising you?

[@sasakanjuh7660]

Prepare your mind to be blown again, because you can also select all the rows/lines in a visual mode, then type ": norm! @", and it will perform the macro saved in on all selected lines :) In this case, though, since it's running macro on each consecutive line, it will actually only append two words per line, so this was obviously not a perfect example, but still, super useful trick.. What you can do instead, is make a macro append only "," at the end of the line, use previously explained approach to run that macro on all the lines (which will effectively append "," to each of them), then select all the lines again in visual mode and just press "J", it will do the trick :)

[@shahwan42]

Thanks. That was useful.

[@TheBigW300]

you can also make macros recursive so that they call themselves and one call to it will go through the whole file.

[@Steerable6827]

"I'm yankin all over the place"

[@vidal9747]

It's weird how I always thought that I was doing things slow in vim. Some day, suddenly, I realized I was getting fast. It is weird how suddenly it was. I am not KZbinr level fast, but I can perceive input delay in different terminal emulators fast. I don't know, I kind of had an epiphany and can do everything faster suddenly.

[@TheBearmoth]

"I'm yankin' all over the place" And here I was, thinking this was a family friendly channel 😂

[@PetrenkoAndrii]

Cool video! Thank you!

[@jrtomsic]

This is one that I've known about for a while. Something I haven't figured out is how to replicate the ^[ esc character if I want to, for instance, add an escape keypress somewhere in the middle of my pasted macro. I think using the capital register to append the esc char, then moving that character elsewhere is probably the easiest way, but I wonder if there's an easier one.

[@granthammond804]

Ctrl_v Esc

[@lpanebr]

@@granthammond804 I was going to say Ctrl+R Esc but now I'm uncertain. Gonna have to try it.

[@neoplumes]

But, what about ctrl+v jjjjjj shift+I backspace , Visually selecting seems easier than a macro?

[@britneyfreek]

in sublime i just use column editing for the commas and then join the lines. i program for 20 years and can’t get accustomed to having to remember all those vim gymnastics. still interesting nontheless.

[@savagepro9060]

typecraft: "This VIM trick BLEW MY MIND" Cocaine: 🤔🤨 Hmm, so you're sniffing a household kitchen cleaner, eh?

[@danieloverstreet7625]

J blew my mind, very cool

[@fcpolon1a543]

The OGs saw it being filmed

[@AverageNeovimEnjoyer]

Great Vid!

[@softwaresirppi]

in kakoune that would be four keystrokes %r,

[@ChrisCox-wv7oo]

Not working for me (I don't use kakoune, using fairly old version 2022.10.31). Subs all char with , I had to do %sc, 10 char Vim :,+ns/ /, 13 char

[@MySisterIsASlytherin]

Is nobody gonna talk about that shopping list?

[@Ziggurat1]

Can you make videos about nixos?

[@nightfox6738]

1:05 No the easiest way to do that is :%s/ /, /g Also please don't do @a@a@a. 8@a will do all the lines

[@PhrontDoor]

For the first 8 lines.. I'd do : move to beginning of apple... then :s/ /,/g 8 that changes the new lines to commas for 8 lines.

[@LeLouchMania]

Hmm groceries in vim 🤯🤯🤯

[@luquest1848]

Does that mean you can 7@a to do all of them at once?

[@StevenWaltonj]

$GkA,VGJ or faster :1,$-1s/ /, /g Also, ^[ isn't "a special character that means escape" it __is__ escape. You can press ctrl + [ (

[@sharp764]

Coincidentally I learned this after watching this video

[@irlshrek]

also, if you press ".", the period, itll redo your last command. so you can do @a and then a bunch of periods to redo it

[@silak33]

you can also use @@ for redoing the last macro you used

[@matthewr8502]

Years ago I read a really good book on vim and the first chapter was all about how powerful the . command is.

[@ChrisCox-wv7oo]

. repeats last edit, which was a join. @@ to replay macros

[@mrmakra-eo1kx]

before watching what you are going to say how i would do is select all the lines then :norm A, this would add comma to the end of line of every selected lines and now just press J couple of times and done oh yeah maybe delete the last comma at the end. edit: oh the video is about macro registers

[@KevinONeillPlus]

lol .. 15 years .. a teenager thinking they are “old”. I’m at 45 years and still going strong, most of that time I’ve been a vi of some kind user.

[@thelethalmoo]

This is the one feature I just cant help feel super slow compares to multi-curser in vs code. Use mouce (pain), middle click and drag. Backspace, comma. Done. Ctrl and macros just never as fast

[@oglothenerd]

I use Helix, btw.

[@jasonbeermaker4980]

15years 😂 - your only just starting I’m close to 40years and used vi (the original) then moved to vim and now to neovim

[@reapersenpaix99]

ig i learned 2 more things today 🤯

[@clemisch]

Hmm, I feel like this example would have easier to solve with multi-cursor. Can somebody quote an example which is better handled with macros than multi-cursor (either directional or multi-select-same)?

[@darrishawks6033]

The easiest way to put it all on one line separated by commas would be to do a regex that replaces line breaks with ", " Just saying

[@YannMetalhead]

Good tip.

[@timidlove]

maybe do a regex substitution simpler?

[@dermozart80]

Who doesn't want to purchase a grandma?? I mean, everyone could use one, so why not...

[@tranvuong9034]

Interesting way to do it. Actually I use regex to make that happens :( A bit more works but it works

[@um8078]

did no one notice the end of the list

[@picklypt]

So I could just write the macro into the file I am already editing, yank it, and then play it with @0. Pretty nice

[@siuyutpang2335]

oh, you can edit macro in vim, awesome