Vim: Easy way to convert recorded macro into let

Question

I want to save a certain macro permanently so that I can replay it in future sessions.

For instance, I record the macro which surrounds selected words with ** (like **this text is strong** ):

1. Switch to the visual mode
2. Select some words
3. Start recording "a"
4. Press c , ** , Ctrl-r , " , ** , Ctrl-; (to switch to the normal mode); and
5. Stop recording.

From the next time, I can just select words and press @a to replay these actions.

Now I enter :reg a and see this output:

--- Registers ---
"a   c**^R"**^[

How can I define this using the :let function so that I can add this to.vimrc and make this macro permanent?

:let @a='c**^R"**^['

didn't work.

Answer 1

The ^R and ^[ in the output of :reg a are literal control codes, not ^ followed by R or by [ . Usually, Vim uses a special color to hint at that difference.

You can do either of two things…

• In your vimrc , type out the macro directly, using :help i_ctrl-v to insert the literal control codes. That is, press <Cv> then <Cr> to insert a literal ^R :

   let @a = 'c** " type this out <Cv><Cr> " press <Cv><Cr> to insert ^R "** " type this out <Cv><Esc> " press <Cv><Esc> to insert ^[ ' " type this out <Esc> " leave insert mode

  

• In your vimrc , insert the register directly between the quotes with :help i_ctrl-r :

   let @a = ' <Cr>a ' <Esc>

Note that it doesn't protect the register in any way so @a can be overwritten accidentally. A mapping, the right hand side of which is a macro, seems safer to me:

" again, use <C-v><C-r> to insert `^R`
xnoremap <key> c**^R"**^[

" or use the angled brackets notation
xnoremap <key> c**<C-r>"**<Esc>