Re: Changing Search and Replace Newline Character

On 11/4/22 3:59 AM, Christian Brabandt wrote:
> On Do, 03 Nov 2022, Thomas Jakway wrote:
>> According to https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Search_and_replace:
>>
>>
>> "When searching, \n is newline, \r is CR (carriage return = Ctrl-M = ^M)… When
>> replacing, \r is newline, \n is a null byte (0x00)."
>>
>> There are also questions on StackOverflow about this, e.g. https://
>> stackoverflow.com/q/71417.
>>
>>
>> Is there any way to change my settings to make this consistent? I'd like \n to
>> mean "newline" in replace as well. I'm aware that this means \n can no longer
>> be used to mean null when replacing. Ideally I'd be able to change that to some
>> other control sequence, but not constantly tripping over this pothole is more
>> important. If necessary I'll insert nulls using sed or some other tool. I use
>> search and replace all the time but hardly ever need to insert a null byte
>> anywhere.
> No, this is not possible, except for creating a mapping that evaluates
> your expression and replaces the result, see, :h c_CTRL-\_e


I have to admit I've also found this inconsistency kind of baffling and
annoying. Although I don't replace something with a newline all that
often, so so far I've just lived with replacing whatever with nul,
undoing it, and editing the replace to do what I actually want. I have
also (mostly) trained myself to use ^V^M in the replacement instead,
which does what I want, although technically doesn't do what it says.
I've also never, in decades of programming and probably years spent in
vi then vim, wanted to replace anything with a nul.

I realize it's far, far too late to change this, so just venting a bit.
And it's the small imperfections that emphasize the perfection of the
whole. :-)

Brian

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