How do I search and replace only within a visual selection?

Explanation

After making a visual selection, you can run a substitute command that only affects the selected text. Pressing : in visual mode automatically inserts '<,'> as the range.

How it works

• Select text with v, V, or <C-v>
• Press : to enter command mode (shows :'<,'>)
• Type s/old/new/g and press Enter
• Only selected lines are affected

Example

Select lines 2-4 and run :'<,'>s/foo/bar/g to replace only within those lines.

Tips

• '< is the mark for the start of the last visual selection
• '> is the mark for the end
• For block selections (<C-v>), use \%V to restrict to the block: :'<,'>s/\%Vold/new/g
• Without %, the range is the selected lines