Duplicate previous line word by word

Tip 1158 Printable Monobook Previous Next

created 2006 · complexity basic · author zzapper · version 5.7

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This is a simple tip, which I have found really useful for coding and documentation. So much so that I've allocated it two precious function buttons.

Mary had a little lamb<Press F2>
Mary <press F1>
Mary had<press F1>
Mary had a<etc etc>

imap <F1> @<Esc>kyWjPA<BS>
nmap <F1> @<Esc>kyWjPA<BS>
imap <F2> <Esc>o<Esc>kyWjPA<BS><Space>
nmap <F2> <Esc>o<Esc>kyWjPA<BS><Space>

Please consider giving it a try you'll likely find it addictive.

Comments

There are similar built-in commands. See :help i_CTRL-Y and :help i_CTRL-E. However, these only insert character by character.

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What about i_CTRL-X_CTRL-N? I use this all the time.

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Here is a safer version that is less damaging at line ends (inserts trailing spaces instead), does not polute the undo history, works for wrapped lines and could be performed from the middle of an available line. Works like Ctrl-E and Ctrl-Y (except for words) in Insert mode.

"word copy from line above/below
"<Esc>gi ensures Insert (not Replace) mode
inoremap <C-l> <Esc>gi<Space><Esc>gkywgjvpa
inoremap <C-b> <Esc>gi<Space><Esc>gjywgkvpa

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A nice idea. Anyway, I use <c-y> twice, maybe thrice, then <Tab> what is mapped to <c-p> (VimTip102).

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this is my mappings in .vimrc for duplicating a line: nmap <C-y> <ESC>YA<ESC>p

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I used to use the <c-l> mapping above but found it a bit buggy so i came up with this one

imap <expr> <c-l> matchstr(getline(line('.')-1), '\%' . virtcol('.') . 'v\%(\k\+\s\=\\|.\)')