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Vim Tip: Select Column

How many times have you wanted to replace a column of text with something. With vim it’s easy. Just use CTRL-V to select a column using a visual block.

Once it’s selected, you can do a search and replace, yank, cut and other actions. For example, here’s the keystrokes to change a column.

• Put cursor and beginning of text to select
• Press CTRL-V to begin select of the column
• When you reach the end of your select, type ‘c‘
• Type the new text. Note that this will only replace the first instance.
• Now hit <ESC><ESC>. All the text has been changed!

The same thing works with plain old ‘v‘ (select character by character) and SHIFT-V (select by line).

Happy vimming!