Is this crazy vim register voodoo (incrementing alpha registers) possible within a macro?

Question

I have 4 lines.

foo ["bar"]
baz ["k"]
daskhfkjhadsfj ["askfjhfjdsh"]
dfjhafkjhfha ["skkksks"]

I'd like to do a macro that takes the word and yanks it into a register, but I want the register to increment. e.g.:

f"l"ayf"j0
f"l"byf"j0
f"l"cyf"j0
f"l"dyf"j0

Is there a way to get this command done in such a way that the registers autoincrement, so I can later paste them:

jjjj
f"ap   
j
f"bp

I'm aware of register numbering and yi" - i'd like to use this with alpha registers instead. I'm also aware that a collision might occur with my chosen register: You can assume that my macro will be recorded in z and I want to use, say, a-f for registers used.

Can you suggest a way to get this accomplished using a macro?

Answer 1

With a macro? Maybe. With two macros, sure!

First some setup:

:set nrformats=alpha
:let @y="\"a"

And now some crazy Vim register voodoo:

qzf"l@yyf"GoEsc"yp^A0"yy$dd^Oj0q

The strategy is to use one macro (y) to keep track of which register to use next, and modify it using the other macro.

• f"l@yyf" is from your original, only I've used @y in place of "a. We're using the y macro to type "a instead of typing it directly.
• GoEsc"yp goes to the end of the file, adds a new line there, and pastes the contents of register y.
• ^A increments the letter under the cursor. If it was a, now it's b. We set nrformats=alpha earlier so that this would work with letters.
• 0"yy$ yanks the updated text back into register y.
• dd^O cleans up our scratch line and jumps back to where we were before, and
• j0 is the rest of your original.