Learning the vi and Vim Editors, 7th Edition

Joining Two Lines with J

Sometimes while editing a file you end up with a series of short lines that are difficult to scan. When you want to merge two lines into one, position the cursor anywhere on the first line, and press J to join the two lines.

Suppose your file practice reads:

With a
 screen editor
 you can
 scroll the page, move the cursor

Keystrokes	Results
J	With a screen editor you can scroll the page, move the cursor J joins the line the cursor is on with the line below.
.	With a screen editor you can scroll the page, move the cursor Repeat the last command (J) with the . to join the next line with the current line.

Using a numeric argument with J joins that number of consecutive lines. In the example here, you could have joined three lines by using the command 3J.

Problem Checklist

• When you type commands, text jumps around on the screen and nothing works the way it’s supposed to.

  Make sure you’re not typing the J command when you mean j.

  You may have hit the CAPS LOCK key without noticing it. vi is case-sensitive; that is, uppercase commands (I, A, J, etc.) are different from lowercase commands (i, a, j), and if you hit this key, all your commands are interpreted not as lowercase but as uppercase commands. Press the CAPS LOCK key again to return to lowercase, press ESC to ensure that you are in command mode, and then type either U to restore the last line changed or u to undo the ...