In Vim visual mode, why does the command start with '<,'>?

Question

When I pop into Vim\'s visual mode to, for example, indent a block of text, the command prompt always starts with \'<,\'>. Can someone break down for me w

Answer 1

The '<,'> at the beginning of your command line represents the range which you have selected . This is the also the range of test onto which the command you are about to enter would be applied.

For example if I selected a region of text in visual mode and then wanted to replace all occurrences of 'stack' with 'overflow' my command would look like:

:'<,'>s/stack/overflow/g

Without visual mode this same command would have to be accomplished by specifying the line range by hand eg:

:1,10s/helo/hello/g