Can't use macro more than once in gVIM

Question

in gVim, I am trying to do

q 2 dd j q

Then

@2

at several points later. It works the first time (meaning vim deletes three lines and moves down when I type @2), but anytime after that, my screen blinks and the cursor moves down once.

Is there a setting I need in vimrc or something to allow this macro?

Answer 1

What is happening is that Vim uses the Numbered registers to store recent changes made with the yank and delete commands. That will wipe your macro from the register.

As a general recommendation, avoid the numeric registers when recording macros.