Could someone please tell me know how to copy specific lines, for example Lines 10-20, 22, 24-30 in a file, so I can paste it to another file? I saw this stackoverflow post as someone had pointed out, however, I'm asking a different questionwhere
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4 Answers
Here's a fun little idea. Paste this in your ~/.vimrc:
command! -nargs=* Y :call YankList(<f-args>) fun! YankList(...) let yanklist = [] for i in a:000 if match(i, "-") != -1 let split = split(i, "-") let yanklist = yanklist + range(split[0], split[1]) else let yanklist = yanklist + i endif endfor call setreg('"', "") for i in yanklist call setreg('"', getline(i), "al") endfor endfun Now you can specify lines to yank to the unnamed register. So do:
:Y 10-20 22 24-30 and use p to paste them wherever you want them. (inclusive)
I'd like to edit this post even though it's old to suggest the more "vimmy" way of doing this. See :help usr_10 | 131.
You could do:
10GV20G"ay 22G"AY 24GV30G"Ay G"ap Also, if there were some specific pattern that each of these lines contained, then you could grab them by said pattern. Say for example I wanted to yank all lines containing the word "foo", then I could do
:g/foo/y " 
Comments
Use visual mode, or directly:
:10,20yank Copy to a new file:
:new | put | 0d Usually, you'll either have a criterion, e.g. move all lines containing pattern to the end:
:g/pattern/m$ To copy (:copy or :t)
:g/pattern/t$ To yank to a register:
:let @a="" | g/pattern/y A Now, you can use it wherever you like e.g. "aP to paste it.
If you don't have patterns like that to use, just use text motions, e.g. }:y A to append a block of lines till the next empty line to register a etc.
Edit PS. I thought I'd explain a bit more why I mention m$ to move to the end (a personal favourite of mine):
If you opt to move/copy lines to the end of the file (m$), you can then write them to another file at once. E.g.
:$mark a :g/pattern/t$ :'a,$w newfile.txt Copies the lines matching to file newfile.txt. Now delete the copy from the source file:
:'a,$d 
Comments
Here is a simple solution using Registers.
Using your scenario you provided, needing to yank Lines 10-20, 22, 24-30
Just yank each group with "A".
:10,20y A
:22y A
:24,30y A
At this point you have each of those sets of lines copied to your "A" register. Now you you can use p to paste as you normally would OR you can use "Ap (double quote, Letter of Register, then p to paste just those you yanked with to the A Register.
Comments
Have the both files open - invoke directly from the command line as vim fileone filetwo or open vim and then :e file. You can then switch between them with buffer commands, for two files :bn and :bp are equivalent (buffer next, previous). Then just copy the lines.
This can be done pretty easily: 10G to go to line 10, y10y to copy the next ten lines, then :bn and p to stick it in the other file.
