How do I search and replace text containing special characters?

Explanation

The \V (very nomagic) flag treats all characters as literal except for \. This is perfect when searching for strings that contain regex special characters.

How it works

• \V at the start of the pattern disables all magic
• Only \ has special meaning
• ., *, [, ], ^, $ are all treated literally

Example

To replace obj.method() with obj.newMethod():

:%s/\Vobj.method()/obj.newMethod()/g

Without \V, the . would match any character and () would need escaping.

Tips

• \V is the safest mode for literal text replacement
• In the replacement part, & and \ are still special
• For the replacement, use \= for expressions
• You can also escape characters individually: \. for a literal dot