vim: playing a macro in all selected lines fail

I have a block of text like this:

var a = [
  {"id": 1, "name": "Name 1", "description": "Description for item #1"},
  {"id": 2, "name": "Name 2", "description": "Description for item #2"},
  {"id": 4, "name": "Name 4", "description": "Description for item #4"},
  {"id": 5, "name": "Name 5", "description": "Description for item #5"},
  {"id": 6, "name": "Name 6", "description": "Description for item #6"},
  {"id": 7, "name": "Name 7", "description": "Description for item #7"},
  {"id": 8, "name": "Name 8", "description": "Description for item #8"},
  {"id": 9, "name": "Name 9", "description": "Description for item #9"},
  {"id": 10, "name": "Name 10", "description": "Description for item #10"},
  {"id": 11, "name": "Name 11", "description": "Description for item #11"},
  {"id": 12, "name": "Name 12", "description": "Description for item #12"},
  {"id": 13, "name": "Name 13", "description": "Description for item #13"},
  {"id": 14, "name": "Name 14", "description": "Description for item #14"},
  {"id": 15, "name": "Name 15", "description": "Description for item #15"},
]

I want to add a "lastName" item in all objects members of the list, and they should become something like this:

var a = [
  {"id": 1, "name": "Name 1", "lastName": "Last Name 1", "description": "Description for item #1"},
  {"id": 2, "name": "Name 2", "lastName": "Last Name 2", "description": "Description for item #2"},
  {"id": 4, "name": "Name 4", "lastName": "Last Name 4", "description": "Description for item #4"},
  {"id": 5, "name": "Name 5", "lastName": "Last Name 5", "description": "Description for item #5"},
  {"id": 6, "name": "Name 6", "lastName": "Last Name 6", "description": "Description for item #6"},
  {"id": 7, "name": "Name 7", "lastName": "Last Name 7", "description": "Description for item #7"},
  {"id": 8, "name": "Name 8", "lastName": "Last Name 8", "description": "Description for item #8"},
  {"id": 9, "name": "Name 9", "lastName": "Last Name 9", "description": "Description for item #9"},
  {"id": 10, "name": "Name 10", "lastName": "Last Name 10", "description": "Description for item #10"},
  {"id": 11, "name": "Name 11", "lastName": "Last Name 11", "description": "Description for item #11"},
  {"id": 12, "name": "Name 12", "lastName": "Last Name 12", "description": "Description for item #12"},
  {"id": 13, "name": "Name 13", "lastName": "Last Name 13", "description": "Description for item #13"},
  {"id": 14, "name": "Name 14", "lastName": "Last Name 14", "description": "Description for item #14"},
  {"id": 15, "name": "Name 15", "lastName": "Last Name 15", "description": "Description for item #15"},
]

my macro is this

:reg l
--- Registers ---
"l   0f:2lyiw2f,a "lastName": "Last Name 0",^[2hmi2F,hyiw`iviw"0p

and works fine in one line, or works fine if I append a j to move down at the end and runs like 14@l.

What I cannot make work is to visually select all the lines with V, then typing :normal @l, as it will only work on the first line selected (regardless if there is a j or not appended at the end). How to make it work in all the selected lines?

Solution

You need to do, once your lines selected:

:'<,'>norm @l

To execute in all the selected lines. :normal @l executes it only on the current line.

Also, you can give a range of lines directly (instead of going in visual mode):

:10,20norm @l

Where 10 and 20 are your first and last line of the range to cover.

As an extra, your can also run a macro on all the lines matching a pattern:

:g/"name"/norm @l

Which executes the macro on all the lines matching "name"