Vi. changing txt into table

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1

just discover this thread. It sounds perfect for me because I am following an online course on command line tools and some instruction ... seems not be replicable on my Terminal

Here is an example on a txt file with n rows each containing 3 word separated by a space.

a b c
d e f
....

after entering in the vi editor what I want is to convert the file into a tabular structure.
The command provided is
:1,$s/ / ^I/g

on the opposite to what the instructor got (table) mine is just
a ^Ib ^Ic
d ^Ie ^If
...

can anyone help or saying if it is possible that is the terminal that misinterpreted the command?

Thanks a lot

2

In this case the ^I was meant to be inserted by pressing the TAB key on your keyboard. The caret symbol often denotes a control code achieved by holding down control and pressing the next letter.

3

This is not the case because this is the exact synthax the instructor typed on its terminal when in file editing mode and not what I was said to do. This is to say that I just copied what I saw on the screen

4

Have you tried it? If you press a tab while typing that command out, Vim will display a ^I to the screen but afterwards your file will be tabulated.

5

Hi,
To obtain ^I under vim in normal mode by key series below:
CTRL+v and TAB key. So for your example, type in normal mode:

:1,$s/ / <CTRL>v<TAB>/g

Regards.

6

I got it.
Pressing the tab results in "^I" in the text
but writing it down and obtaining apparently the very same code it is not the same at all.
Now I understand why the color of "^I" is blue!!
thanks