How to do column editing in vim?

Vim is pretty powerful when editing by line - the search/replace tools are modeled to work linewise.

But what if I want to change a particular column across all lines? For example, how can I change the 80th column in my file to a # easily?

Solution 1:

To edit a column, follow these steps:

1. Stand on the beginning of the column
2. Press Ctrl+v, then mark across the column you want to edit.
3. Press Shift+i to insert text at the beginning of the column, Shift+a to append text, r to replace highlighted text, d to delete, c to change... etc.
4. Hit ESC when done.

I think people (me) sometimes map the column editing keys to Ctrl+Q so it won't collide with visual select line (V) or paste-text if you mapped it as such.

Solution 2:

...I couldn't follow the steps of sa125 (facepalm) so I looked someplace else and found a simpler explanation at: https://blog.pivotal.io/labs/labs/column-edit-mode-in-vi

1. Ctrl+v [ and select what ever you want]
2. Shift+i [and write whatever...(check out ** below)]
3. Esc

*c without Shift can be used instead of step 2, to delete selection before insert. And also r to replace.

**!! Attention Don't be discouraged by the fact that only the first row is changed when you 'write whatever...'!!

Hope it helps!

Solution 3:

You can use a substitution where the pattern matches a specific column (\%c):

:%s/\%80c/#/<CR>

Or you can use block-wise visual mode:

gg80|CTRL+vGr#

The 'virtualedit' option can be used to allow positioning the cursor to positions where there is no actual character:

:set virtualedit