Vim as XML Editor: Tasks

To mark up the literal command name string in

<para>
Use cd to go to a different directory.
</para>

select it (eg via 2 G w v e), then type [mapleader] x in quick succession (eg \ x or , x). At the prompt, enter the name of the element, eg command, then press enter twice. You should get something like the following:

<para>
Use <command>cd</command> to go to a different directory.
</para>

Let's say you want to mark up the acronyms in

<para>These XSLTs can be used for transforming
DBX to XHTML.</para>

Search for groups of uppercase characters via / \ u \ { 2 , } [enter] Enter n until you reach the first acronym you want to mark up. Then record one of the following macros:

In XML mode (with xmledit)

q a i < a c r o n y m > [esc] [right] d % / \ U [enter] P / \ u \ { 2 , } [enter] q

Without xmledit

q a i < a c r o n y m > [esc] / \ U [enter] i < / a c r o n y m > [esc] / \ u \ { 2 , } [enter] q

Now the cursor should be at the beginning of the next group of uppercase characters. If you want to mark it up (if it's an acronym that's not yet marked up) do @ a, otherwise do n to jump to the next group of uppercase letters. To repeat the last executed recorded action do @ @. You should get this:

<para>These <acronym>XSLT</acronym>s can be used for transforming
<acronym>DBX</acronym> to <acronym>XHTML</acronym>.</para>

Let's say you have some space-separated strings which you want to mark up as XHTML table:

1  2 3  4   5
2 4    6 8  10
3 6 9  12  15
4 8  12 16 20
5 10    15 20 25

One way is to record some sub-tasks:

get set

[mapleader] x g g > G : % s / $ / [space] . / [enter] g g O [ctrl-d] < t a b l e > > [esc] d d . G p 2 G

cells

q c i < t d > [esc] [right] d % t [space] p [right] d / \ S [enter] q 4 @ c

rows

q r x I < t r > [esc] [right] d % $ p + q

cells and rows

q a 5 @ c @ r q

and now comes the fun part

3 @ a

You should get this:

<table>
  <tr><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>5</td></tr>
  <tr><td>2</td><td>4</td><td>6</td><td>8</td><td>10</td></tr>
  <tr><td>3</td><td>6</td><td>9</td><td>12</td><td>15</td></tr>
  <tr><td>4</td><td>8</td><td>12</td><td>16</td><td>20</td></tr>
  <tr><td>5</td><td>10</td><td>15</td><td>20</td><td>25</td></tr>
</table>

If the data is simple you can use simple commands. Here's some CSV data which has

• no empty fields
• no quoted fields (no record separators inside fields, no quotes inside quotes)
• and no fields that span mutiple lines

1;2;3
2;4;6
3;6;9
4;8;12
5;10;15

Mark up the table cells via

:%s/\([^;]*\);\?/<td>\1<\/td>/g

or

:%!ruby -ne "print gsub(/([^;\n]+);?/,'<td>\1</td>')"

so that you get

<td>1</td><td>2</td><td>3</td>
<td>2</td><td>4</td><td>6</td>
<td>3</td><td>6</td><td>9</td>
<td>4</td><td>8</td><td>12</td>
<td>5</td><td>10</td><td>15</td>

Then mark up the table rows via

:%s/.\+/<tr>&<\/tr>/

Alternatively you could chain the two steps:

:g/./ s/\([^;]*\);\?/<td>\1<\/td>/g | s/.\+/<tr>&<\/tr>/

<tr><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>3</td></tr>
<tr><td>2</td><td>4</td><td>6</td></tr>
<tr><td>3</td><td>6</td><td>9</td></tr>
<tr><td>4</td><td>8</td><td>12</td></tr>
<tr><td>5</td><td>10</td><td>15</td></tr>

Here's some more complex CSV data, as exported from a spreadsheet app:

1;2;3;4
"this field contains a line
break and a record ; separator";4;6;"line
break"
;8;12;
"quoted ""word""";16;;
;;"record ; separator";

Inserting a record separator at the end of each record which is at the end of the line simplifies things a bit:

:v/"[^";]\+$/ s/$/;/

To mark up all records in the buffer as table cells do

:%s/\("\(""\_.*""\|\_[^"]*\)"\|[^;]*\);/<td>\1<\/td>/g

Mark up table rows:

:%s/\(^\(<td>\_.\{-}<\/td>\)\{-}\)\(\n\|$\)/<tr>\1<\/tr>\3/g

All this is still based on some assumptions; before you process real data run tests with some lines representing your data and adjust the commands. Cleaning up is not simple either, here's a cheap way to remove the double quotes inside quotes

:%s/""/"/g

... and the quotes around the fields:

:g/./ s/"\(<\/td\)/\1/g | s/\(td>\)"/\1/g

A pretty cryptic way to do both at once: (one line)

:%!ruby -e "$nlt='[^<]'; print $stdin.read.gsub(Regexp.compile(
'(<td>)\"('+$nlt+'+)\"(<\/td>)')){($1+$2+$3).gsub(/\"\"/,'\"')}"

This is what you should get:

<tr><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>4</td></tr>
<tr><td>this field contains a line
break and a record ; separator</td><td>4</td><td>6</td><td>line
break</td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td>8</td><td>12</td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td>quoted "word"</td><td>16</td><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td></td><td>record ; separator</td><td></td></tr>

Now you could insert dashes into the empty cells

:%s/\(<td>\)\(<\/td>\)/\1-\2/g

mark up the line breaks

:v/<\/tr>$/ s/$/<br \/>/

and then wrap the whole thing in an XHTML table.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<table>
  <tr>
    <td>foo</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>foo</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>foo</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>foo</td>
  </tr>
</table>

:%!xmlstar ed -i /table/tr -t attr -n class -v odd

Here's what the option names in the above command line stand for:

ed

edit

-i

insert

-t

type

-n

name

-v

value

XMLStarlet also supports long options (eg --insert as alternative for -i), but the short versions save typing and space, which is especially useful when calling XMLStarlet from the shell and not from a script.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<table>
  <tr class="odd">
    <td>foo</td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="odd">
    <td>foo</td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="odd">
    <td>foo</td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="odd">
    <td>foo</td>
  </tr>
</table>

:%!xmlstar ed -u "/table/tr[(position() mod 2)=0]/@class" -v even

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<table>
  <tr class="odd">
    <td>foo</td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="even">
    <td>foo</td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="odd">
    <td>foo</td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="even">
    <td>foo</td>
  </tr>
</table>

-u stands for or "update".