How to sort two-line blocks in Vim?

Question

I have a file with the following content:

/** doxygen comment for enum member1 */
COMMON_PREFIX_name1 = 1,
/** doxygen comment for enum member2 */
COMMON_PREFIX_name2 = 2,
/** doxygen comment for enum member3 */
COMMON_PREFIX_name3 = 3,
/** doxygen comment for enum member4 */
COMMON_PREFIX_name4 = 4,
...

Is is possible to sort the definitions by the name1, name2, etc. suffixes in the member names, and keep each comment above the corresponding definition?

Answer 1

I propose the following sequence of actions.

1. Join the paired lines:

   :g/^\s*COMMON_PREFIX_/-j!
   

2. Sort the joined lines by the variable names’ suffixes:

   :sort#\*/\s*COMMON_PREFIX_#
   

3. Split the sorted lines back:

   :g#\*/\zs\ze\s*COMMON_PREFIX_#s//\r/
   

You can run all three commands at once:

:exe'g/^\s*COMMON_PREFIX_/-j!' | sort#\*/\s*COMMON_PREFIX_# | g#\*/\zs\ze\s*COMMON_PREFIX_#s//\r/