Vimscript Normal command

So far we've covered some of the most commonly used Vimscript commands, but they're not related to the way text is handled in normal mode every day. Is there a way to combine our scripts with everyday text editing commands?

The answer is clearly yes. W e've seen normal command before, and it's time to cover it in more detail. Execute the following command:

:normal G

Vim will move your cursor to the last line of the current file, as if you were pressing G in G Now do the following command:

:normal ggdd

Vim moves to the first line of the file gg and deletes it dd

normal command simply accepts a string of key values and treats them as if they were entered in normal mode. It's as simple as that!

Avoid mapping

Do the following command to map G key to something else:

:nnoremap G dd

Pressing G in normal mode G an entire line. Try this command:

:normal G

Vim deletes the current row. normal command will take into account all current maps.

This means that we normal provide normal with a version similar to nnoremap to nmap otherwise we can't use it -- considering we can't guess how users are mapped.

Fortunately, Vim does have such an order normal! To execute this command:

:normal! G

This time Vim will move the cursor to the bottom of the file, even G has been mapped.

When you write a Vim script, you should always use normal! , never use normal Do not trust the ~/.vimrc

Special characters

If you use normal! O ver time, you'll probably notice a problem. Try the following command:

:normal! /foo<cr>

At first glance it looks like it should start searching for foo you'll see that it won't work. T he normal! Special character <cr> are not resolved.

So Vim thinks you want to search for the string sequence "foo" without realizing that you're even pressing enter to search! (The original text is you even pressed return to perform the search! Press the meaning below should be not pressed return, to be asked the author) We will discuss how to deal with this problem in the next chapter.

Practice

Read :help normal In the final section, you'll get tips on the topics in the next chapter.

Additional questions

If you're not ready for the challenge, skip this section. If you're bold enough, good luck!

:help normal undo. T ry to design a map that deletes two rows but can undo each deletion individually. It is nnoremap <leader>d dddd

This time you don't really normal! nnoremap enough), but it reveals one thing: Sometimes reading a Vim-command document can inspire ideas about something else.

If you haven't used helpgrep it's time to use it. R ead :help helpgrep . Watch out for sections on how to navigate through the matching content.

Don't tangle patterns for a while, we'll talk about them soon. Now just know that you can foo.*bar method to find lines in your document that include that pattern.

Unfortunately, helpgrep be frustrating from time to time, because in order to find certain words, you need to know how to search for certain words. I'll save you some useless work, and this time you'll have to find a way to manually modify Vim's undo sequence so that the two deletions you map can be undone independently.

You have to be flexible in the future. Sometimes when you're confused, Google, you know it.