Duplicate tip
This tip is very similar to the following:
These tips need to be merged – see the merge guidelines.
created March 7, 2001 · complexity basic · author neuron · version 5.7
You can increment or decrement a number by pressing Ctrl-A or Ctrl-X when in Normal mode. The number can be at the cursor, or after the cursor.
The number can be decimal, hexadecimal or octal. You can also increment or decrement a single letter ("a...", "b...", "c..."). This is controlled with the 'nrformats' option.
Ctrl-A is very useful in a macro. As an example, suppose you type the line:
101 This is an item.
In Normal mode, enter the following to record a macro into the a register. This macro yanks the current line, then pastes it below, then increments the number.
qa Y p Ctrl-A q
Now type 15@a to perform the macro 15 times. You will see:
101 This is an item. 102 This is an item. 103 This is an item. 104 This is an item. and so on
On Windows, your _vimrc file may source mswin.vim. That script sets Ctrl-A to Select All. If you want to use Ctrl-A in Normal mode to increment a number, you need:
:nunmap <C-A>