How to Delete line in Vim/Vi Editor? [Vim Delete Line]

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Vim may be used to create and modify text and computer program files for different reasons. When processing text files in the Vim editor, you frequently have to remove one or more lines, and it allows you to easily modify your files, as does any other text editor. As there are various methods to delete a line in this popular text editor listed below. This article concentrates on helping you with the VIM delete line command or how to delete multiple lines or Vim delete all lines.

How to delete a line in vim editor?

How to delete Single Line in Vi Editor

dd is the Vim command for deleting a line.

The following are detailed steps for deleting a line:

To return to normal mode, use the Esc key.
Place your pointer on the line you'd like to remove.
To delete a single line, type dd and press the Enter button.

Numerous presses of the dd key will erase multiple lines.

How to delete a Single Word in vim/vi editor

To return to normal mode, use the Esc key.
To erase a term, place your cursor at the beginning of the term you want to remove.
Make the following keystrokes: dw

How to remove multiple lines in vim?

Prefix the dd command and mention the number of lines to be erased to delete several lines at once. To remove five lines, for example, perform the following:

To return to regular mode, use the Esc key.
Place your cursor on the first line you'd like to remove.
To remove the following six lines, type 6dd and press Enter.

How to Remove a group of lines from a document

In Vim, press the Esc key to return to normal mode.
When executing the following command, replace [from] and [to] with the line numbers where you want the array to start and end, respectively.

:[from],[to]d

For example, if you wanted to erase lines 3,4,5,6 and 7, you'd type:

:3,7d

How to Delete all Line

You may use either the percent sign (which indicates all lines) or the 1,$ range to remove all lines:
To return to normal mode, use the Esc key.
To remove all the lines, type % d, and press Enter.

How to Delete Pattern-Containing Lines

The following is the syntax for removing several lines based on a pattern:

:g/<pattern>/d

The delete command (d) is told to remove all lines bearing the <pattern> by the global command (g).

For lines that do not suit the pattern, add an exclamation point (!) before the pattern:

:g!/<pattern>/d

How to Delete blank lines in VIM/VI

1. To return to normal mode, use the Esc key. and remove all blank lines.

2. After that, type the following:

:g/^$/d

How to delete lines in Insert mode

To begin deleting lines in Vim/Vi, you must first enter insert mode. This can be done by pressing the i key on your keyboard.

Once you are in insert mode, you can delete lines by using the backspace key. This will delete the characters to the left of the cursor, including any spaces or tabs.

After deleting the desired lines, make sure to press the Esc key to exit insert mode and return to normal mode. This will allow you to save your changes or continue editing your document as needed.

Make sure to let us know in the comments if you liked our Vim delete line in Insert mode method.

How to delete lines in Normal mode

By following these three steps, you can easily delete lines in normal mode in Vim/Vi editor.

First, you must move the cursor to the line you want to delete. This can be done by using the arrow keys on your keyboard or by typing the line number and then pressing the G key.

Once the cursor is on the desired line, type the command dd to delete the line. The line will be removed, and the cursor will move to the line directly below the deleted line.

If you accidentally deleted the wrong line, or if you need to undelete the previously deleted line, you can use the u command. Pressing u will undo the last change made in the document.

How to delete lines in Ex mode

By following these three steps, you can easily delete lines in ex mode in Vim or Vi editor. This function can be useful when you need to quickly delete multiple lines of text in a document.

To delete lines in ex mode, you must first enter ex mode. This can be done by typing : (colon) in normal mode and then typing ex command, such as 1,$d to delete all lines in the document.

After typing the Ex command to delete the line(s), press Enter to execute the command. The line(s) will be deleted, and the cursor will move to the next line.

How to use deletion as a means of searching

The method to search and delete line in Vim is quite simple. Follow the steps below to learn how to do it.

To start editing a document in Vim/Vi, open the text file in the terminal and type vi or vim followed by the file name. Press Enter to enter the editor.

Once you are in Vim/Vi, enter the deletion command by typing /. This will search for the word or phrase you want to delete and highlight it in the document.

To delete the highlighted word or phrase, press the x key. This will delete the text from the document and close the search bar. You can then repeat this process to delete additional instances of the same word or phrase.

How to delete from current line to the end of file

Start by positioning the cursor to the line from where you want to begin deleting text. You can use the arrow keys or type the line number followed by a colon and then press enter to jump to that line number.

Once you are on the desired line, type the command dG. This command will delete all the text from the current line to the end of the file. Note that the 'd' command stands for delete, and 'G' represents the end of the file.

After deleting the text, save your changes by typing: wq. This command will write the changes to the file and exit Vim/Vi.

How to delete from current line to the beginning of file

Once you've positioned your cursor, type the command d1G in command mode. This command deletes all the text from the current cursor position to the first line of the file. Note that the 'd' command stands for delete, and '1G' represents the first line of the file.

After deleting the text, save your changes by typing: wq in command mode. This command will write the changes to the file and exit Vim/Vi.

How to remove lines based on Regular Expressions

Open the file you want to edit in Vim/Vi by typing in the command: `vi filename`.
Press the colon key (:) to enter the command-line mode.
Type in the command: `g/regexp/d` where regexp is the regular expression you want to delete. This command will delete all lines that match the given regular expression.

Note: If you only want to delete lines that match a regular expression in a certain range of lines, you can specify the range by typing in the command: `start,endg/regexp/d` where the start and end are the line numbers of the range.

Conclusion

Vim is one of the best and most popular editors in the Linux operating system. It's a text editor that's free, well-documented, and configurable. In this tutorial, we have learned how to delete line in Vim editor and how to delete single words, multiple lines, or how to delete a line in VI. Vim is a powerful text editor with many more capabilities to discover. also if you think there are any text editors that we can use you can suggest them via the below comment section, you can read our detailed article that has a comparison between two popular text editors that are Vim vs. Nano text editors.

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Category: Tutorials Linux