Question

I’m searching to empty out multiple columns in VIM
(not to delete but to put spaces inside).

This is my search command:
/\%2c\|\%4c\|\%>5c\%<9c
(column: 2,4,6-8)

How can I empty out these columns in vim?
:%s/\%2c\|\%4c\|\%>5c\%<9c/ /g doesn’t work

Answer 1

/\%c is a zero-width match.

You’ll need to match something like:

/\v^(.).(.).(.)...

Which will keep the values of columns 1, 3, and 5 in groups.

Then you can substitute:

:%s!\v^(.).(.).(.)...!\1 \2 \3   !

…keeping columns 1, 3, and 5 but replacing the rest of the first eight columns with spaces.