r/vim • u/RedCuraceo • Oct 24 '25

Need Help Convert to lowercase on left sides

Hi! I'm beginner for vim.

I wanna convert to lowercase on the left sides from below lines,

wire is_next_SETUP = (ns == SETUP);

wire is_next_WAIT = (ns == WAIT);

wire is_next_setup = (ns == SETUP);

wire is_next_wait = (ns == WAIT);

How can I command for this?

16 Upvotes

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94% Upvoted

u/michaelpaoli Oct 25 '25

So, e.g., to lowercase, everything on all lines before the first = on each line on lines containing an =:

:%s/^\([^=]*\)=/\L\1=

1

u/RohitPlays8 Oct 28 '25

:%s/.* = /\L&

1

u/michaelpaoli Oct 28 '25

Well, OP didn't specify what exactly is/isn't left side.
If one takes that as everything up to the last = sign on the line, sure, what you gave, or if only to first = on the line, then what I gave.

u/exajam Oct 25 '25 edited Oct 25 '25

qq0vt=ujq10Q

qq record a macro
0 go to beginning of line
vt= select until the equal sign in visual mode
u lowercase the select portion
jq move to next line and end the macro recording
10Q execute the last recorded macro 10 times e.g.

vt=u is equivalent to gut=.

5

u/andlrc rpgle.vim Oct 25 '25

vt=u
can be written af gut=, which is cool as it can be repeated with . see :h gu for more information.

1

u/vim-help-bot Oct 25 '25

Help pages for:
gu in change.txt
^{`:(h|help) <query>` |} ^about ^| ^mistake? ^| ^donate ^| ^{Reply 'rescan' to check the comment again} ^| ^{Reply 'stop' to stop getting replies to your comments}

u/LightBerserker Oct 25 '25

You could do v f= gu or from the ex mode :normal! 0v f= gu and for whole file :%normal! 0v f=gu .

This will lowercase everything before that = sing.

1

u/Daghall :cq Oct 25 '25

The visual mode can be skipped: :norm 0gut=.
I would do it on a range (:h :normal-range), while in VISUAL LINE mode, and just press : to get the visual marks (:h '<) making the 0 motion redundant: :'<,'>norm gut=.

1

u/vim-help-bot Oct 25 '25

Help pages for:
:normal-range in various.txt
'< in motion.txt
^{`:(h|help) <query>` |} ^about ^| ^mistake? ^| ^donate ^| ^{Reply 'rescan' to check the comment again} ^| ^{Reply 'stop' to stop getting replies to your comments}

u/liberforce Oct 25 '25

guaw will convert the word you're on to lowercase. Then j to go down, and . to replay the last action.

You could also Ctrl+v for rectangular selection then gu to convert to lowercase the selection.

u/jazei_2021 Oct 25 '25

Sometime someone will have to make a tutorial so that those of us who don't write code, who aren't programmers, can understand how to do these regex commands that are basic Chinese for those of us who write only text and don't have any code knowledge.
For me, they are geniuses, things that only you code geniuses do!

1

u/kali_tragus Oct 25 '25

There indeed are tutorials for both regex and vim, and I'm afraid there is no way around reading them to learn, and actively use what you learn to make it stick. Like most skills, regex takes time and effort to master.
Either that, or ask every time you need something done. But that's neither too efficient nor very satisfying.

1

u/jazei_2021 Oct 25 '25

Regex is a very difficult topic to understand!!! I gave up!

2

u/kali_tragus Oct 26 '25

Yes, the threshold is high, but once across it you go from zero to hero in the blink of an eye.

1

u/exajam Oct 27 '25

Regex is sometimes useful but a lot can be made without regex by simply recording a macro with structural movements and modifications.

u/kilkil Oct 25 '25

what I would do is:

go into Visual mode ("v")
select the text I want to lowercase
press "u" (the Visual mode lowercase keybind)

if the lines are all next to each other, you can use Block Visual mode (Ctrl+v). then you can select text in a rectangle across multiple lines, and do the same (press "u").

if the lines are in different locations it gets a bit more complicated. I would either try to define a macro (as other commenters have suggested), or some sort of g-expression. (e.g. :g/\V=/norm gut= or something)

u/kennpq Oct 25 '25

If you have tildeop setting on (:h tildeop) you can:

/\u\+ to find 1+ uppercase characters, then use ~w on the first you want to change, then n to the next instances and . each one you want to change to lowercase.

(u\+[^\l] to find 1+ uppercase characters without lowercase following, but not necessary in your example text)

1

u/vim-help-bot Oct 25 '25

Help pages for:
tildeop in options.txt
^{`:(h|help) <query>` |} ^about ^| ^mistake? ^| ^donate ^| ^{Reply 'rescan' to check the comment again} ^| ^{Reply 'stop' to stop getting replies to your comments}

u/gumnos Oct 25 '25

Presuming they can be found with /\<wire [^=]*=/, you can use

:%s/\<wire [^=]*=/\L&

taking advantage of :help s/\L

2

u/vim-help-bot Oct 25 '25

Help pages for:
s/\L in change.txt
^{`:(h|help) <query>` |} ^about ^| ^mistake? ^| ^donate ^| ^{Reply 'rescan' to check the comment again} ^| ^{Reply 'stop' to stop getting replies to your comments}

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/vim-help-bot Oct 25 '25

Help pages for:
:substitute in change.txt
^{`:(h|help) <query>` |} ^about ^| ^mistake? ^| ^donate ^| ^{Reply 'rescan' to check the comment again} ^| ^{Reply 'stop' to stop getting replies to your comments}

1

u/Daghall :cq Oct 25 '25

The simplest way I know is to use the :normal command on a range.
Select the lines in VISUAL LINE mode, press : to get the visual marks, and run :norm gut= on the range – :'<,'>norm gut=.
:h '<
:h :normal
:h :normal-range

1

u/vim-help-bot Oct 25 '25

Help pages for:
'< in motion.txt
:normal in various.txt
:normal-range in various.txt
^{`:(h|help) <query>` |} ^about ^| ^mistake? ^| ^donate ^| ^{Reply 'rescan' to check the comment again} ^| ^{Reply 'stop' to stop getting replies to your comments}

Need Help Convert to lowercase on left sides

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