I want to join multiple lines in a file based on a pattern that both lines share. This is my example: {101}{}{Apples} {102}{}{Eggs} {103}{}{Beans} {104}... ... {1101}{}{This is a fruit.} {1102}{}{These things are oval.} {1103}{}{You have to roast them.} {1104}... ... I want to join the lines {101}{}{Apples} and {1101}{}{This is a fruit.} to one line {101}{}{Apples}{1101}{}{This is a fruit.} for further processing. Same goes for the other lines. As you can see, both lines share the number 101, but I have no idea how to pull this off. Any Ideas? /EDIT: I found a "workaround": First, delete all preceding "{1" characters from group two in VISUAL BLOCK mode with C-V (or similar shortcut), then sort all lines by number with :%sort n, then join every second line with :let @q = "Jj" followed by 500@q. This works, but leaves me with {101}{}{Apples} 101}{}{This is a fruit.}. I would then need to add the missing characters "{1" in each line, not quite what I want. Any help appreciated.