How do I search and replace text only on the current line?

Explanation

The :s/old/new/g command replaces all occurrences of old with new on the current line only. Unlike :%s which operates on the entire file, :s without a range is scoped to the line where the cursor is.

How it works

• :s is the substitute command, defaulting to the current line
• /old/ is the search pattern
• /new/ is the replacement string
• g is the flag for "global" — replace all occurrences on the line, not just the first

Example

Given the text with the cursor on the second line:

foo bar baz
foo bar foo bar
foo bar baz

Running :s/foo/qux/g results in:

foo bar baz
qux bar qux bar
foo bar baz

Only the current line is affected. The other lines remain unchanged.

Tips

• Without the g flag, only the first occurrence on the line is replaced
• Use :%s/old/new/g to replace across the entire file
• Use :%s/old/new/gc to replace across the file with a confirmation prompt for each match
• Use :s/old/new/i for case-insensitive matching on the current line
• In visual mode, select a range of lines and then type :s/old/new/g — Vim automatically adds the range markers '<,'>
• Use & or :s without arguments to repeat the last substitution on the current line
• Use \v at the start of the pattern for "very magic" mode, which makes regex syntax closer to Perl/Python