Question

I’ve got multiple commands in a command line that builds a text string in the unnamed register @”. Then I have a substitute that captures a couple of atoms. Finally, I need to replace a pattern with the two submatches (\1 and \2) AND the @”.

I cannot get the @” reg to display its contents AFTER first displaying the submatches. I can display the @” prior to displaying the submatches. For ex:

multi-commands | @"=textString | 'a,'bs/(atom1)(atom2)/\1\2 "displays perfectly

Or,

multi-commands | @"=textString | 'a,'bs/(atom1)(atom2)/\=@" "displays 'textString' perfectly

But,

multi-commands | @"=textString | 'a,'bs/(atom1)(atom2)/\1\2@"
multi-commands | @"=textString | 'a,'bs/(atom1)(atom2)/\1\2\@"
multi-commands | @"=textString | 'a,'bs/(atom1)(atom2)/\1\2\=@"

All fail to display the register contents of ‘textString’ and instead show ‘@”‘

Does anyone know why that is?

Answer 1

That’s because of \= needs to be first item in a replacement.

You should use the following:

:'a,'bs/(atom1)(atom2)/\=submatch(1).submatch(2).@"