Search Vim Tricks
Searching...:put =toupper(@")
Registers in Vim are not only for raw replay; you can treat them as string data and transform them at paste time.
registers #registers #expression-register #editing #vimscript
:let @q = substitute(@q, '\n', '', 'g')
A common macro failure mode is accidentally hitting while recording.
/\vstart\_.{-}end
Multiline searches in Vim often overmatch because .
:pedit +/TODO %
When you need a second read-only view of the same file, opening more normal splits can disrupt your working layout.
:%s/[“”]/"/ge<CR>:%s/[‘’]/'/ge<CR>
When text comes from docs, email, or CMS exports, it often contains typographic quotes (“”‘’) that break code snippets, Markdown tooling, or shell comma
vipJ
When text is hard-wrapped for readability in git diffs or markdown source, you sometimes need the paragraph as a single line for refactoring, search, or export.
:set whichwrap+=<,>,h,l
By default, h and l stop at line boundaries.
:'<,'>normal! I//
Visual Block insert (I.
<C-r>=substitute(getreg('+'), '\n\+', ', ', 'g')<CR>
When you paste from the system clipboard into code or config, multiline text often needs to be flattened first.
registers #registers #insert-mode #expression-register #text-processing
/\vTODO:\s*\zs.{-}\ze\s*($|#)
When TODO comments include prefixes, owners, or trailing metadata, a plain search often lands on the wrong part of the line.
/foo\@<!bar
Vim regex supports zero-width assertions, so you can match text based on context without consuming the context itself.
:arglocal
By default, Vim's argument list is global, so changing it in one window can unexpectedly affect another workflow in a different tab or split.
:%s/\n\{3,}/\r\r/g
When files pass through formatters, generators, or repeated edits, they often accumulate noisy vertical gaps.
:setlocal winfixheight
Quickfix windows are easy to disturb when you open, close, or rebalance other splits.
:set sessionoptions+=globals,localoptions
If you rely on sessions for context switching, default :mksession can feel incomplete because some state does not come back.
:packadd! cfilter
If you share a Vim config across machines, optional plugins can cause noisy startup behavior when a package is missing.
<C-r><C-o>a
When you paste multiline snippets from a register while in Insert mode, default insertion can trigger indentation and formatting side effects line by line.
registers #registers #insert-mode #formatting #indentation #editing
:'>,'<normal @q
Running a macro over a range usually goes top to bottom, but that can break when the macro inserts or deletes lines.
macros #macros #ex-commands #visual-mode #normal-mode #refactoring
/\%>20l\%<40lTODO
Vim's search engine can constrain matches by line number, which is useful when you want to scan a known section without touching the rest of the buffer.
:'[,']normal! =
When you need to run a command on exactly the text you just changed, yanked, or pasted, Vim's automatic marks are faster and safer than reselecting manually.
command-line #command-line #marks #indentation #ex-commands #normal-mode
