[Chapter 2] 2.5 Joining Two Lines with J

2.5 Joining Two Lines with J

[J] Sometimes while editing a file you will end up with a series of short lines that are difficult to scan. When you want to merge two lines into one, position the cursor anywhere on the first line, and press J to join the two lines.

Suppose your file practice reads:


W
ith a
screen editor
you can
scroll the page, move the cursor

Keystrokes	Results
`J`	W ith a screen editor you can scroll the page, move the cursor
	`J` joins the line the cursor is on with the line below.
`.`	W ith a screen editor you can scroll the page, move the cursor
	Repeat the last command (`J` ) with the `.` to join the next line with the current line.

Using a numeric argument with J joins that number of consecutive lines. In the example above, you could have joined three lines by using the command 3J .

2.5.1 Problem Checklist

When you type commands, text jumps around on the screen and nothing works the way it's supposed to.

Make sure you're not typing the J command when you mean j . You may have hit the [CAPS LOCK] key without noticing it. vi is case-sensitive. That is, uppercase commands (I , A , J , etc.) are different from lowercase commands (i , a , j ), so all your commands are being interpreted not as lowercase but as uppercase commands. Press the [CAPS LOCK] key again to return to lowercase, then type either U to restore the last line changed or u to undo the last command. You'll probably also have to do some additional editing to fully restore the garbled part of your file.