Fast jump to line that matches a regular expression

Previous Tip • Next Tip

Tip: #996 - Fast jump to line that matches a regular expression

Created: September 21, 2005 3:38 Complexity: basic Author: Ivan Tishchenko Version: 5.7 Karma: 39/14 Imported from: Tip#996

Last time I often use the following sequence of commands:

g/rex/# 

<here I look through the list and choose the line I want, then I type its number as next command> 

<some-line-number> 

I do it so often, that I at least decided to write the following command.

It does the following.

:[range]GJ[ump][!]/rex/ 

(Syntax is exactly as in :global except that you must NOT specify any commands after /rex/. You may also use some other delimiter in place of "/", for example, ",").

It prints out numbered list of lines matching the /rex/ (or not matching, if you add '!'). Then it allows you to enter the number of line you need and moves cursor to that line.

Here you have this command. Happy vimming!

command! -nargs=* -bang -range=% GJump <line1>,<line2>call GJump('<bang>',<q-args>) 
function! GJump(bang,rex) range abort 
  let lines =  
  let i=1 
  exe a:firstline ',' a:lastline 'g'.a:bang.a:rex.'echo substitute(strpart(i+1000000,1),"^0\\|\\(0\\@<=0\\)"," ","g") getline(".")|let i=i+1|let lines=lines.(line(".")+1000000)' 
  while 1 
    let nmr = input('Type in selected number, or just hit <Enter> to exit: ') 
    if nmr == ""
      return 
    endif 
    let nmr = nmr+0 " Make string be number. 
    if nmr>0 && nmr<i 
      break 
    endif 
  endwhile 
  let nmr = strpart(lines,(nmr-1)*7,7) 
  let nmr = nmr-1000000 
  silent exe nmr 
endfunction

Comments

Add following lines before "while 1" to handle cases when no lines found:

if i==1 
  return 
endif

Ivan Tishchenko , September 21, 2005 4:24

---

I was happy to see that g/rex/# also works in old vi.

jaldri1 at gl dot umbc dot edu , September 21, 2005 6:57

---

Could it be adapted to [I (see :help [I ) ??

zzapper , September 21, 2005 8:26

---

This duplicates behavior of the :ilist command, though I think your approach saves a keystroke or two.

:ilist /public 

The above will display every line that matches the pattern 'public' (all public methods, for example). The matching line's linenumber will be to the left of the displayed line. You can then type ':<linenumber><CR>' to go to the appropriate line.

none , September 21, 2005 12:41

---

not to mention that :ilist can be abbreviated as :il so you could use:

:il /regexp

didier.prophete--AT--gmail.com , September 22, 2005 8:10

---

You see, :ilist searches not only in current file, but also in all includes. This is too slow in my particular case. And, anyway, I do not need any matches outside the current file, when I use :GJ.

Ivan Tishchenko , September 26, 2005 3:33

---

And, if you will read the tip all through, you'll see, that that was annoying necessity of typing :<line-number><cr> which made me design this command. When repeated often, this :<line-number><cr> is quite tiring; imagine that you do that each 1-2 minute, and you'll understand what I mean.

Ivan Tishchenko , September 26, 2005 3:37

---

Where do you put the function?

jason.hopkins--AT--med.ge.c0m , September 28, 2005 15:13

---

I put it in my .vimrc.

But I guess there's better ways

zzapper , September 29, 2005 10:13

---

The better way is to put this function as plugin. Type

:help add-global-plugin 

to see, how you could do that.

Ivan Tishchenko , October 3, 2005 8:13

---

I didn't know about g/re/# Neat!

Is there any way to put the output of a g/ command into a buffer? That's what I really want.

Anonymous , October 20, 2005 9:20

---

To put the output of :g/<re>/p or any Ex-command into a register, do the following:

:redir @a> | exe '<Ex-cmd that you want to capture output goes here>' | redir END

Now the output of the command is in register "a". Place in buffer where you want it with "ap.

The reason for wrapping the command in quotes and exe-ing it is because some commands, like :global, see the following | as part of the command, so the redirection doesn't behave properly.

See

:help :redir
:help :bar