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Vim: increment numbers across blocks

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Tags: #vim #increment

Vim increment numbers across blocks.md

So I had an interesting problem where I had a block of code like…

"testing0.testing-performance-domain.com" = {
  val1 = "value_1"
  ...
}

The … is lots of key/value lines, so it ends up being a large ‘block’.

I needed to duplicate the block multiple times (200 in fact) but the first line needed an incremented number, so…

"testing1.testing-performance-domain.com" = {
  val1 = "value_1"
  ...
}
"testing2.testing-performance-domain.com" = {
  val1 = "value_1"
  ...
}
"testing3.testing-performance-domain.com" = {
  val1 = "value_1"
  ...
}

The way I solved this was to:

• make sure the "a register contained 0.
• V%y (copy the block).
• 199P (duplicate it, as we need two hundred blocks).
• qq (on the first line of the first block I record the following macro 0f0v"ap^AvTg"ay).
  • 0 go to start of the line.
  • f0 find the first zero (e.g. the zero in testing0).
  • v"ap select the zero and replace it with the contents of the "a register (the first time round this would be the same number: 0).
  • ^A press Ctrl-a to increment the number pasted from the register.
    • The cursor is always placed at the end of the number.
    • So if number is 123 then the cursor would be on 3.
  • vTg select back to just before the g in the preceding word “testing” (i.e. select the new number).
  • "ay and yank the new number into the same "a register.
• I then reset the first block to zero (so "testing0.testing-performance-domain.com" = {)
• :g/\v^\s\s\s\s"testing\d/norm @q find all relevant blocks and run the macro.