Every so often I need to deal with some exported database id’s that come in the form of a CSV file. The trouble is, instead of having the id’s one per line, I really need them on a single line, comma-separated so that I can use them in an IN clause in some kind of query. I always remember this is easy to do in vim, but I can never remember the syntax. So here it is, for my (and maybe somebody else’s) future reference:
:%s/\\n/,/: to enter command mode
% to select all lines
Then the substitute command to search and replace all newlines in the selected block with a comma.
Of course you could use the pipe character or whatever other delimiter you need in place of the comma.
Now that I’ve written it down somewhere hopefully I’ll never forget it!
Author: Eric Asberry
URL: https://a42.us/2016/09/18/Quick-tip-for-joining-lines-with-a-separator-in-vim/