Published on

Vim: delete empty lines within a visual selected area

The command

:'<,'>g/^$/d

1️⃣ '<,'> — the range (your visual selection)

  • '< = start of the last Visual selection
  • '> = end of the last Visual selection
  • Together, '<,'> means:

👉 Apply the command only to the lines you selected in Visual mode

So this command does not affect the whole file, only the selected block.

2️⃣ g — global command (within the range)

  • g/pattern/command
  • For each line matching pattern, run command

Here, it means: 👉 For every line in the selected range that matches the pattern…

3️⃣ /^$/ — the pattern (empty lines)

Regex breakdown:

  • ^ = start of line
  • $ = end of line
  • Nothing between them → line contains nothing

👉 Matches empty lines only

  • Does not match lines with spaces or tabs

(If you want whitespace-only lines too, see below.)

4️⃣ d — delete

  • d = delete the matched line

✅ Final meaning (plain English)

Delete all empty lines inside the selected region.

Common variations (very useful)

🔹 Delete empty lines in the entire file

:g/^$/d

🔹 Delete empty and whitespace-only lines

:'<,'>g/^\s*$/d
  • \s* = any amount of whitespace (spaces, tabs)

🔹 Inverse: delete all non-empty lines in selection

:'<,'>g!/^$/d

or

:'<,'>v/^$/d

Typical workflow (how you’d use it)

  1. Press V (or v) to select lines
  2. Adjust selection
  3. Type : (Vim auto-fills '<,'>)
  4. Enter g/^$/d
  5. Press Enter