Setting buffer contents by byte offset

Paul Jolly

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Jul 11, 2019, 3:55:47 AM7/11/19

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Hi all,

I've tried various permutations of search terms, but so far turned up a blank.

Is there a function/similar that will allow me to set buffer contents
between a start and end byte offset?

If there isn't, I have a "backup" in the form of a :substitute like:

%s/\%3l\%1c\_.*\%4l\%1c/hello\r/g

(because I'm also deriving the line and col whilst deriving the byte
offset) but I suspect the byte-offset based approach will be
considerable more efficient if available.

Thanks,

Paul

Tony Mechelynck

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Jul 11, 2019, 4:32:30 AM7/11/19

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see
:help go
:help v_c

You could "go" to your starting point, set Visual mode, go to your
ending point, and then "c"hange or "s"ubstitute.

Best regards,
Tony.

Paul Jolly

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Jul 11, 2019, 4:45:30 AM7/11/19

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Thanks, Tony.

Your response has helped me understand that my substitute solution
will not work here either.

Reason that neither solution will work is that it requires moving the
cursor, and that's not at all desirable in this case.

Effectively what I'm after here is a byte-offset based equivalents of
bufsetline(), appendbufline() and deletebufline().

Paul

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Ingo Karkat

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Jul 11, 2019, 7:00:39 AM7/11/19

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On 11-Jul-2019 10:45 +0200, Paul Jolly wrote:

> Thanks, Tony.
>
> Your response has helped me understand that my substitute solution
> will not work here either.
>
> Reason that neither solution will work is that it requires moving
> the cursor, and that's not at all desirable in this case.

I would not generally rule out cursor moves; within a function, Vim
doesn't update the screen, and you can save and restore the original
view via:

let l:save_view = winsaveview()
" Your moves here
call winrestview(l:save_view)

Many plugins use this.

> Effectively what I'm after here is a byte-offset based equivalents
> of bufsetline(), appendbufline() and deletebufline().

Given that Vim is a text editor, and text is organized in lines, I
don't think there's enough demand for such variants, especially since
workarounds should exist (see above).

- -- regards, ingo

> On Thu, 11 Jul 2019 at 09:32, Tony Mechelynck
> <antoine.m...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 11, 2019 at 9:55 AM Paul Jolly <pa...@myitcv.io>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I've tried various permutations of search terms, but so far
>>> turned up a blank.
>>>
>>> Is there a function/similar that will allow me to set buffer
>>> contents between a start and end byte offset?
>>>
>>> If there isn't, I have a "backup" in the form of a :substitute
>>> like:
>>>
>>> %s/\%3l\%1c\_.*\%4l\%1c/hello\r/g
>>>
>>> (because I'm also deriving the line and col whilst deriving the
>>> byte offset) but I suspect the byte-offset based approach will
>>> be considerable more efficient if available.
>>

>> see :help go :help v_c
>>
>> You could "go" to your starting point, set Visual mode, go to
>> your ending point, and then "c"hange or "s"ubstitute.

Paul Jolly

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Jul 11, 2019, 7:10:15 AM7/11/19

to Ingo Karkat, Vim Dev Mailing List

> > Reason that neither solution will work is that it requires moving
> > the cursor, and that's not at all desirable in this case.
>
> I would not generally rule out cursor moves; within a function, Vim
> doesn't update the screen, and you can save and restore the original
> view via:
>
> let l:save_view = winsaveview()
> " Your moves here
> call winrestview(l:save_view)
>
> Many plugins use this.

Thank you, that's a good point.

I'll give this a shot and report back with any issues.

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