buffer.md

excommand buffer

Vim Reference

:help :buffer
:help +cmd
:help CTRL-^

Short Description

Edit given buffer.

Examples

editing by buffer number

If you read the reference, which I hope you do, you can see that the buffer number can be given as counter or as parameter. So the following seems to be equivalent if we want to edit buffer number 4 ...

:buffer 4
:b 4
:b4
:4b

You can also run the command directly after running :ls or :ls! to see the buffer list, which is very useful because who the heck knows the buffer numbers by heart?!

editing by file name

You can also use the <TAB> key to use filename completion.

:b filename

editing the alternate buffer

As an alternative to Ctrl-^.

:b#

passing various commands to :buffer

put cursor on last line

:b + 4
:b + filename

put cursor on given line number

:b +42 4
:b +42 filename

put cursor on first line matching pattern

:b +/pattern 4
:b +/pattern filename

execute command after opening buffer

:b +command 4
:b +command filename

Like in the following example, and notice that you have to protect the whitespace ...

:b +set\ ft=py myFile.py.bak