Place the rows of two blocks of text after each other alternatively

Question

I have the following two blocks of text

abc
abc
cdz
zer
sdf



bfd
dss
azr
vvf
ezr

I want to know how I can place the rows of these two blocks alternatively so that I get the final block of text as following:-

abc
bfd
abc
dss
cdz
azr
zer
vvf
sdf
ezr

Isn't there a way in which I can just paste all of the 2nd block rather than doing it one by one? This is because the blocks that I actually have are a lot bigger and it will take a lot of time doing that. — Shawn Brar, Apr 14 '22 at 08:49

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 15 '22 at 09:40

Using macro to move 1 line at a time:

Start recording macro with your cursor on the 1st char of the 1st line
Move cursor down x lines until the first line of the 2nd block (x=8 in this case)
```
8j
```
Cut this line using D instead of dd to maintain the distance between the 2 blocks
```
D
```
Move cursor up x lines to the first line
```
8k
```
Paste the line we just cut
```
o[esc]p
```
Move cursor to the next starting position (1st char of the next line)
```
j^
```
End recording.
Replay this macro on each line.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 14 '22 at 10:00

0

Here is a method inspired by this question:

Write each block to a separate temporary file:

vip
:'<,'>w /tmp/a
<motion>
vip
:'<,'>w /tmp/b

answered Apr 14 '22 at 10:00

romainl

2 Answers2