How do I match a pattern only when it is preceded or followed by another pattern using Vim regex?
\@<= and \@=
Vim's regex engine supports zero-width lookahead and lookbehind assertions using the \@ atom.
Category: search
How do I match a pattern only when it is preceded or followed by another pattern, without including that context in the match?
\@=
Vim's regex engine supports zero-width lookahead and lookbehind assertions using the \@ family of atoms.
How do I override ignorecase or smartcase for a single search without changing my settings?
/\cfoo
Vim's \c and \C flags let you force a search to be case-insensitive or case-sensitive on a per-search basis, regardless of your ignorecase and smartcase setting
How do I run a substitution only within the exact characters of my visual selection?
:%s/\%Vpattern/replacement/g
The \%V atom restricts a regex match to the last visual selection — more precisely than :'s/.
How do I use a VimScript expression as the replacement in a substitution?
:s/pattern/\=expression/g
Prefixing the replacement string with \= in a :substitute command tells Vim to evaluate the rest as a VimScript expression rather than literal text.
How do I insert a newline in the replacement string of a :s substitution?
:s/,/,\r/g
In Vim's :substitute command, \r in the replacement string inserts a literal newline — it splits the line at that point.
How do I force a case-sensitive or case-insensitive search for just one pattern without changing my settings?
\C
Vim's \C and \c atoms let you override ignorecase and smartcase on a per-pattern basis.
How do I search for a pattern across all files in my project without leaving Vim?
:vimgrep /pattern/ **
:vimgrep /pattern/ searches recursively through all files in the current working directory tree using Vim's own regex engine, populating the quickfix list with
How do I search for a pattern only on a specific line number or at a specific column position?
\%l and \%c
Vim's \%l and \%c pattern atoms anchor a search to a particular line number or column, enabling surgical searches and substitutions that standard regex cannot e
How do I move through search matches while still typing the pattern?
<C-g> and <C-t>
While the search prompt is open (with incsearch enabled), pressing advances the cursor to the next match and moves it to the previous match — all without leav
How do I match a pattern only when followed or preceded by another pattern in Vim?
\@= and \@! and \@<= and \@<!
Vim's regex engine supports zero-width lookahead and lookbehind assertions using the \@=, \@!, \@<=, and \@<! atoms.
How do I search for the word under the cursor as a substring, not a whole word?
g* and g#
The and # commands search for the exact whole word under the cursor (with word boundaries \).
How do I count how many times a pattern appears in a file without making any changes?
:%s/pattern//gn
The n flag on the substitute command reports the number of matches without performing any substitution.
How do I count how many times a pattern appears in a file without making any changes?
:%s/pattern//gn
The n flag on the substitute command makes it report the match count without actually performing any replacement.
How do I search for an exact multi-word phrase or special text I've selected?
* (in visual mode)
In normal mode, searches for the word under the cursor with word-boundary anchors.
How do I use PCRE-style regex in Vim without escaping every special character?
\v
Vim's default regex mode ("magic") requires backslashes before many special characters: \(, \ , \+, \{.
How do I delete all blocks of text between two patterns throughout a file?
:g/start/,/end/d
The :g (global) command can operate on ranges, not just single lines.
How do I search for a pattern across all files in a project using Vim's built-in grep?
:vimgrep /pattern/ **/*
While external tools like grep or ripgrep are fast, Vim's built-in :vimgrep has a key advantage: it populates the quickfix list directly, so you can jump betwee
How do I swap two parts of a line using capture groups in a Vim substitution?
:s/\v(pattern1)(pattern2)/\2\1/
Vim's substitute command supports capture groups (also called backreferences), which let you rearrange matched portions of text.
How do I run a substitute command without changing my current search pattern?
:keeppattern %s/pattern/replacement/g
When you run a :substitute command, Vim updates the search register (@/) with the substitute pattern, which changes your hlsearch highlighting and affects n/N n