using vi editor

[Shivkumar]

Sirs,

I am using vi editor. Just want to copy 2 or 3 words from a line and want to paste it over some other line or new line in the vi editor.

How to do that ?

Thanks,
Shiv

[TwoProc]

Well, if you know how many characters it is,
just go to the first letter of the string and hit (let's say it's 11 letters):

11x

then go to where you want to paste it, and type:

p

If it's 3 words you want to delete, go to the first letter of the first word and hit:

3dw

then go to where you want to paste it, and type:

p

[Shivkumar]

I want to copy and paste the 2/3 words and Not delete and paste.

Thanks,
Shiv

[Mel Burslan]

make sure you are in the cursor mode (if not sure, hit escape once or more to make sure)

place your cursor at the beginning of the 3 words you want to copy

type 3dw (you will see the 3 words disappearing - now three words are in your clip buffer) if you want to keep them there hit "p" (lower case p) immediately.

now move to the beginning of the location you want to 'paste' them to

hit lower case p again

repeat as necessary

[Rick Garland]

I use the 'yank word' feature

Place ther cursor on the 1st character of the 3 words you want to yank.

For 3 words, do '3yw' then move the cursor to where you want the words placed and 'p' to place the words there.

If you are yanking 2 words, '2yw'

The 'p' keystroke is necessary to 'place'.

If you make a mistake, quit the file without saving and try again. To quit without saving.

:q!

[Jeff_Traigle]

Or shorter... use 3yw to copy the three words and then move to where you want to paste them and use the p command.

[Shivkumar]

Is it possible to copy those 2 words and paste them on existing 2 words on other lines ?

[Jeff_Traigle]

Not that I can think of off the top of my head. There's the s command to substitute (presumably 3sw would substitute what you type for 3 words), but you wouldn't be able to paste anything from the buffer then. Best you can probably get is to paste the words you copied and then delete the words you want then to replace.

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi,

maybe a search/replace would work perfectly!

:1,$s/new_word/word_to_replaced/g

hope this helps too!

kind regards
yogeeraj

[Muthukumar_5]

Use Putty client terminal. It is easy to copy and paste in vi editor as,

Select two words
Come to new line and press i
Right click mouse. It will paste it.

To update in other two words with new one then, Press R to change with new words.

hth.

[Bharat Katkar · Accepted solution]

Attaching a quick reference of VI.
Thought it would be helpful.

Regards,

[Arunvijai_4]

Yanking is the best way to do it. Otherwise, use Putty as Muthu specified.

A good guide on VI atatched.

-Arun