Search and replace in a range of line and column

Question

I want to apply a search and replace regular expression pattern that work only in a given range of line and column on a text file like this :

AAABBBFFFFBBBAAABBB
AAABBBFFFFBBBAAABBB
GGGBBBFFFFBHHAAABBB

For example i want to replace BBB with YYY in line range 1 to 2 and from column 4 to 6, then obtaining this output :

AAAYYYFFFFBBBAAABBB
AAAYYYFFFFBBBAAABBB
GGGBBBFFFFBHHAAABBB

Is there a way to do it with Vim ?

Answer 1

If this is always the first one you want to replace, simply don't specify /g

:1,2s/BBB/YYY/

would work fine.

Alternatively, if you need to exactly specify which column you want replaced, you can use the \%Nv syntax, where N is the virtual column (column as it looks, so tabs are multiple columns, use c instead of v for actual columns)

Replacing the second set of B's on lines 1 and 2 could be done with:

:1,2s/\%11vBBB/YYY/

Answer 2

:1,2 s/\%3cBBB/YYY/

\%3c means third column (see :help /\%c or more globally :help pattern)