How to extract regex matches using Vim

Question

An example:

case Foo:
    ...
    break;
case Bar:
    ...
    break;
case More: case Complex:
    ...
    break:
...

I’d like to retrieve al

Answer 1

Though it's not possible to write a one-liner to accomplish your example, it's hard to type commands such as :%s/case \([^:]*\):/\=.../ interactively.

I prefer using vim-grex with the following steps:

1. Use / to check whether a regular expression matches to expected lines. For example: /^\s*\
2. Execute :Grey. It yanks lines matched to the current search pattern.
3. Open a new buffer by :new etc.
4. Put the yanked lines by p etc.
5. Trim uninteresting parts by :%s//\1/.