Concatenating Commands, Command Separator

• Search for the next record containing the character string `abc',

• starting there, go two records back,

• in that record, change `xyz' to `12'.

locate /abc/
up 2
change /xyz/12/

These commands can be concatenated by writing them in one line, separated with the command separator `;', and entering them at once with Enter:

l/abc/;-2;c/xyz/12

(Of course, you may also write the full command words - in the same manner as they are listed above.)

One of the advantages of concatenation is that some of the actions exaEdit has to execute only have to be made once instead of three times, which results in saving time. Another application of command concatenation can be found in section Command Storage.

The command separator is predefined as the character `;'. But this is not the only character possible for this purpose; you may use any other character except the question mark and digits. The command to change or display the character which functions as command separator is CMDSEP. Please note, that the command to change the command separator has to be the last command in an input line. Compare section The Commands, for more information.

On some keyboards, the character `;' can be only reached with the Shift key. For such a frequently used character, which should serve the efficiency of your working, this may be a bad position. In this case, it would probably be better to use another character, which is reachable directly. Often the comma `,' will provide a solution. To avoid the trouble of entering the command

cmdsep ,

every time you start a exaEdit session, you can solve the problem once and for all by putting the command mentioned above in the exaEdit profile file. Compare also section The Profile Files.

Please note that you do not have to change the command separator if the character `;' is part of a character string in a command. For example, l/ab searches for the character string `ab'. If you want to concatenate the LOCATE command with another command, you only need to write l/ab/;change ... The command l/ab; would search for the character string `ab;'. To concatenate this command with another one, you could write the following version: l/ab;/;change ... Delimitating character strings has priority over the recognition of the command separator.