Add Find The Nth Character Position In A File as a Vim til

README.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ pairing with smart people at Hashrocket.
 
 For a steady stream of TILs, [sign up for my newsletter](https://crafty-builder-6996.ck.page/e169c61186).
 
-_1180 TILs and counting..._
+_1181 TILs and counting..._
 
 ---
 
@@ -1236,6 +1236,7 @@ _1180 TILs and counting..._
 - [End Of The Word](vim/end-of-the-word.md)
 - [Escaping Terminal-Mode In An Nvim Terminal](vim/escaping-terminal-mode-in-an-nvim-terminal.md)
 - [Filter Lines Through An External Program](vim/filter-lines-through-an-external-program.md)
+- [Find The Nth Character Position In A File](vim/find-the-nth-character-position-in-a-file.md)
 - [Fix The Spelling Of A Word](vim/fix-the-spelling-of-a-word.md)
 - [Fold A Visual Selection And Expand It Back](vim/fold-a-visual-selection-and-expand-it-back.md)
 - [For When That Escape Key Is Hard To Reach](vim/for-when-that-escape-key-is-hard-to-reach.md)

vim/find-the-nth-character-position-in-a-file.md

@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+# Find The Nth Character Position In A File
+
+While trying to load a JSON file in a JavaScript program, I got an error
+message. The error message said that there was an issue parsing the JSON file
+at the 9010th character position in the file. Though highly specific, this
+didn't feel particularly actionable. I'm not going to count out 9010 characters
+in a massive JSON file.
+
+It turns out that Vim can help with this. After opening the file, I can then
+run this search:
+
+```
+/\%^\_.\{9010}/e
+```
+
+This will put my cursor right on the 9010th character.
+
+It matches on the first character position in the file (`\%^`), then it matches
+on _any single character or end-of-line_ (`:h /\_.`), and then it matches on
+that character class the number of times specified (`\{N}`) — in this case,
+9010 times. 
+
+Lastly, the second `/` marks the end of the search pattern and the `e` tells
+the search to place the cursor at the end of the match. Without the `e`, the
+cursor will be placed at the beginning of the match. For a match on thousands
+of characters, that's not too helpful.
+
+[source](https://vi.stackexchange.com/a/25308/28962)