How to edit blocks in vim without visual block mode

Question

Is there a way to edit a vertical block in a code without using the visual block mode selection?

Answer 1

You can do something similar to this recent answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/22238813/3130080

For example,

:%s/\%6c/x/

will insert "x" before the 6'th character in each line, and

:1,2s/\%>1c\%<4c.//g

will delete characters 2 and 3 in lines 1 and 2.

:help /\%c