How to delete all blank lines in Vim
Summary
This guide explains how to use Vim commands to delete all blank lines or lines containing only whitespace for efficient text cleanup. Also applies to Neovim.
Introduction #
Efficiently managing blank or whitespace-filled lines is a common task when editing text files. This short guide provides two simple Vim commands to delete all blank lines or selectively remove only those with or without whitespace (spaces or tabs). Happy Hacking.
Delete All Blank Lines and Lines with Whitespace #
The following command deletes all blank lines, including those with whitespace.
In Vim normal mode (press Esc if you are not in normal mode), enter the following command:
:g/^\s*$/d
:ginitiates a global search.^marks the beginning of a line\s*matches any whitespace (spaces or tabs), including zero occurrences., i.e., blank lines.$marks the end of a lineddeletes the lines matching^\s*$.
Delete All Blank Lines Only #
The following command only deletes blank lines, excluding those with whitespace (space characters).
In Vim normal mode (press Esc if you are not in normal mode), enter the following command:
:g/^$/d
:ginitiates a global search.^$matches lines with nothing between the start (^) and end ($) of a line, i.e., blank lines.ddeletes the matched lines.
Further readings #
Sources and recommended, further resources on the topic:
Author
Jonas Jared Jacek (J15k)
Jonas works as project manager, web designer, and web developer since 2001. On top of that, he is a Linux system administrator with a broad interest in things related to programming, architecture, and design. See: https://www.j15k.com/License
License: How to delete all blank lines in Vim by Jonas Jared Jacek is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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