[Help] How to ONLY sort part of a file and keep the format?

[William Fugh]

Hi folks,

As the title. How to sort only the non-TAB-beginning line(s) of a TAB-Based file like the below and keep the format? thanks!
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Origin:
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
for openers
want out
a load of old cobblers
want for
        5. one
        6. two
        7. three
muck about
muck around
        20. one
        21. two
        22. three
bottom on
        24. one
        25. two
        26. three
lark around
lark about
darkred
        29. one
        30. two
        31. three
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Expect to see after sorting:
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
a load of old cobblers
for openers
want for
want out
        5. one
        6. two
        7. three
muck about
muck around
        20. one
        21. two
        22. three
bottom on
        24. one
        25. two
        26. three
darkred
lark about
lark around
        29. one
        30. two
        31. three
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BRs,
---------
William

[Christian Brabandt]

Hi William!

I think, this will do:
:v/^^I/.,/^^I/-sort

where ^I is a literal tab.


regards,
Christian
--

[Bee]

It also works using \t rather than the literal tab (^I):

:v/^\t/.,/^\t/-sort

Bill

[William Fugh]

Amazing! thanks you guys very much! Got it.
-------------
William

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[Bee]

> I think, this will do:
> :v/^^I/.,/^^I/-sort
> where ^I is a literal tab.
>

> It also works using \t rather than the literal tab (^I):
> :v/^\t/.,/^\t/-sort

Either way I get:
E16: Invalid range

But the sort works!

Bill

[ping]

interestingly, I tested it, this doesn't give the expected result.

//screen capture (that ^I is ctrl-v ctrl-i)
1 for openers
2 want out
3 a load of old cobblers
4 want for
5 5. one
6 6. two
7 7. three
8 muck about
9 muck around
10 20. one
11 21. two
12 22. three
13 bottom on
14 24. one
15 25. two
16 26. three
17 lark around
18 lark about
19 darkred
20 29. one
21 30. two
22 31. three
~
~
~
~
~
:v/^^I/.,/^^I/-sort

maybe we need that range-end (/^^I/) to be one line back?

[William Fugh]

On Fri, Sep 14, 2012 at 9:15 AM, Bee <fo...@calcentral.com> wrote:

> I think, this will do:
> :v/^^I/.,/^^I/-sort
> where ^I is a literal tab.
>

> It also works using  \t  rather than the literal tab (^I):
> :v/^\t/.,/^\t/-sort

Either way I get:
  E16: Invalid range

remove all empty lines. :-)

But the sort works!

 

Bill

[William Fugh]

try to press <TAB> key directly in command line. it does work fine. :-)

[Christian Brabandt]

Was there possibly a trailing empty line?

regards,
Christian

[Christian Brabandt]

I can't reproduce it and it works for me.

BTW: the range .,/^\t/- already backs up one line, see :h :range

regards,
Christian