[oclug] VI search and replace problem

[Brian's Linux Box]

On Friday, July 11, 2003, at 12:58  PM, Ross Jordan wrote:

>>
>> Hi All
>> 	I'm trying to clean up a text file in vim.
>> If there are two or more spaces between alpha characters, I want to
>> reduce that to one space.
>>  From reading the docs I think
>> :%s/\a  \+\a/\1 \3/g should work -
>> it matches what I'm trying to fix, but the \1 and \3 don't contain the
>> alpha characters I want to put back.
>> What do I use to represent the alpha characters matched in the \a's?
>> Brian
>
> The following appears to work:
> %s/\(\a\)  \+\(\a\)/\1 \2/g
>
> Though, you may have to run it twice.
>
> -Ross
>

Yep -  that works - even if it makes my head hurt.
Thank you.
I did see the note about using () to indicate a 'sub' pattern - but 
that didn't work either.
I didn't realize I needed to 'escape' the brackets....

Brian