In Vim, what is the simplest way to join all lines in a file into a single line?

Question

I want to join all lines in a file into a single line. What is the simplest way of doing this? I\'ve had poor luck trying to use substitution (\\r\\n or

Answer 1

You can do it with 3 keystrokes starting from normal mode:

:%j

• : enters command mode
• % refers to all lines in the file
• j executes the join command

Now it seems that this adds a space between the lines. I am not sure if you want this.