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From: egt@hprnd.HP.COM (Eric Tausheck)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: A vi question
Message-ID: <3440002@hprnd.HP.COM>
Date: 16 Aug 90 22:08:53 GMT
References: <14420003@hp-lsd.COS.HP.COM>
Organization: HP Roseville Networks Division
Lines: 18

> > I need to do the following in vi.
> > ccccoooossss -> cos
> 
> :%s/cc*/c/g
> :%s/oo*/o/g
> :%s/ss*/s/g
> ----------

   Wouldn't one of the following be more accurate?
:%s/cc*oo*ss*/cos/g
:%s/ccccoooossss/cos/g

   I had the need to do this kind of editing too until I learned about
   col -b.

   If what you started with had a bunch of back-spaces between the
   letters too (as in an nroff or man output), the filter "col -b" does a
   nice job of getting rid of all this junk for you.