Tag: lines | VimTricks

How do I move a line or selection up or down in Vim?

:move +1 / :move -2

The :move command relocates lines to a specific position without using delete and paste.

:%!tac

Vim doesn't have a built-in reverse command, but you can pipe the buffer through tac (reverse of cat) to flip line order.

:10,20d

Specify a line range before a command.

:10,15m 25

Use :m (move) with a range and destination.

:10,15t 25

Use :t (copy) with a range and destination.

:'<,'>!nl -ba

Select lines visually, then run :'!nl -ba to pipe through the nl command which prepends line numbers to each selected line.

qaddpq

Record a macro that deletes the current line with dd and pastes it below the next line with p.

qaJjq

Record a macro that joins the current line with the next using J, then moves down one line with j.

:g/^/m0

The :g/^/m0 command is a clever use of Vim's global command to reverse every line in the file.

:m+1 / :m-2

The :m (move) command relocates lines to a new position in the file without using registers.

:'<,'>s/\n/, /g

Vim's J command joins lines with a single space, but sometimes you need a custom separator like a comma, pipe, or semicolon.

:10,20t30

The :t command (short for :copy) duplicates lines from one location to another without touching any registers.