CODEWITHSUNDEEP
shellvim
kannanrbk
kannanrbk

Reputation: 7134

Vim replace specific character in a word in a line

I want to replace ; to , in a file . 

Query ; Query Time ; Lock Time ; Rows Examined

Closed User Count ; 19.530083 ; 0.000090 ; 64;49;246

Expected Output:

Query ; Query Time ; Lock Time ; Rows Examined

Closed User Count ; 19.530083 ; 0.000090 ; 64,49,246

I use vim substitution to replace. But , I don't how to replace in this scenario.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 109

Answers (4)

DerMike
DerMike

Reputation: 16190

:%s#\([^ ]\);\([^ ]\)#\1,\2#g

Explanation:

The % aplies the command in every line.

Substitute command does not care which delimiter you use. It uses the first character after s. When (a lot of) backslashes are used, I use e.g. #.

It takes ("not-a-space" ; "not-a-space") and replaces it by (that 1st "not-a-space" , the 2nd "not-a-space")

g at the end of the line makes it replace all the occurences per line (not just the first)

Upvotes: 1

Billy Lazzaro
Billy Lazzaro

Reputation: 496

Short answer:

:%s/(\d*);(\d*);(\d*)$/\1,\2,\3/gc

Explained:

%s/search/replace/gc - will find all instances of search and swap them with replace. the c at the end makes it so vi will prompt you for each change

\(\d*\);\(\d*\);\(\d*\) - as many numbers until you hit a semicolon, three times. the escaped parens will capture the output

\1,\2,\3 - escaped numbers give you the data we captured in the search string

Upvotes: 4

romainl
romainl

Reputation: 196496

A variant of Billy's answer that matches "one or more" digit instead of "0 or more":

:%s/\v(\d+);(\d+);(\d+)/\1,\2,\3

and another one that matches "at least 2" digits:

:%s/\v(\d{2,});(\d{2,});(\d{2,})/\1,\2,\3

Upvotes: 1

Félix
Félix

Reputation: 1715

Assuming all ";" are between digits:

:%s/\(\d\);\(\d\)/\1,\2/g

Or if you are looking for ";" not preceding by space

:%s/ \@<!;/,/g

Upvotes: 1

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