Replacing Text

Replacing Text

In addition to inserting and deleting text, you can also replace existing text with new text. You can replace a single character or many lines of the text. The r command is used to replace a single character. When you press r while in command mode, nothing happens, but as soon as you press the next character, it appears on the screen replacing the character at the current cursor location. To replace one character and then go to insert mode, use the s command. You will see a $ symbol and vi will put you in the insert mode just after replacing the current character. You can also replace multiple characters with the R command.