Practical Vim, 2nd Edition

Tip 71

Evaluate an Iterator to Number Items in a List

Being able to insert a value that changes for each execution of a macro can be useful. In this tip, we’ll learn a technique for incrementing a number as we record a macro so that we can insert the numbers 1 to 5 on consecutive lines.

Suppose that we want to create a numbered list from a series of items on adjacent lines. To demonstrate, we’ll start with this text:

macros/incremental.txt

partridge in a pear tree
turtle doves
French hens
calling birds
golden rings

We’ll transform it to look like this:

1) partridge in a pear tree
2) turtle doves
3) French hens
4) calling birds
5) golden rings

We’ve already learned a couple of ways to make Vim perform simple arithmetic. We can ...