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vi editor substitution

 
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# 1  
Old 06-15-2009
vi editor substitution
Hi everyone,

I am new to linux and practicing using vim editor.
I am trying to substitute a word hi to hello

and i can do this using by the following command
s/hi/hello

but this will only substitute only the first occurrence of hi
and
s/hi/hello/g will substitute every occurrence of hi.

What if i want to only substitute the second occurrence of hi to hello?
whats the command going to be?

for example
if a file contains
hi
hi
hi
hi

then i want it to be
hi
hello
hi
hi
hi

Do I have to manually count the occurrence using /c option and say no to it? i guess there is a better way doing this .
# 2  
Old 06-15-2009
Looks like you want to do it in the second line...
then try
Code:
:2 s/hi/hello/

# 3  
Old 06-15-2009
what if my file contains

hi
asdf
z
z
hi
hi
hi

and i want it to be ( the substitution of the second occurrence not the second line)

hi
asdf
z
z
hello
hi
hi
# 4  
Old 06-15-2009
Quote:
Originally Posted by bonosungho
what if my file contains

hi
asdf
z
z
hi
hi
hi

and i want it to be ( the substitution of the second occurrence not the second line)

hi
asdf
z
z
hello
hi
hi
:1 -- Go to first line
/<pattern> -- search for the pattern, press n, and now you are at the second occurence
:. s/hi/hello/ or :. s/hi/hello/g

There is no shortcut here.
# 5  
Old 06-15-2009
You could save a bit of typing by issuing
Code:
:1
:/<pattern>/ s/hi/hello/

Or, but this might not work on all versions (tested on HP-UX)
Code:
:1
:/<pattern>/;/<pattern>/;s/<pattern>/<new>/

Problem with the second is that you'll have to type the pattern once for every occurrence you want, eg for the 2nd twice, for the 5th 5 times, ...
 
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