Question

For some reason, the following map is not working:

nmap ,u :.g/./t.|s/./=/g<CR>

It was intended that once I typed ,u on a line like this:

lorem ipsum

It should transform into:

lorem ipsum
===========

The result: I see :.g/./t. in the bottom of the window. Then I tried escaping the |, and now once I use the mapping I simply see :.g/./t.|s/./=/g in the bottom, and nothing happens.

There probably is a better and error-free way to do it, I still a beginner.

Thanks!

Answer 1

You need to escape bar in mapping: either use \|, or <bar>. Now it is parsed as two commands: nmap ,u :.g/./t. and s/./=/g<CR>.

And do not use nmap, use nnoremap.

Update: though escaped variant of your mapping works, I would have written it as either yyp:s/./=/g<CR>, as :call append('.', repeat('=', strdisplaywidth(getline('.'))))<CR> (vim-7.3, best variant) or as :call append('.', repeat('=', len(split(getline('.'), '\zs'))))<CR> (vim-7.2, has just the same problems with tabs and fullwidth characters as yyp... variant, but does not overwrite any registers).