How do I search for text only within a visual selection?

Explanation

The \%V atom restricts a search pattern to only match inside the most recent visual selection. This lets you perform targeted searches and substitutions within a highlighted block of text, ignoring everything else in the file.

How it works

• First, make a visual selection and press <Esc> to leave visual mode (the selection boundaries are remembered as '< and '>)
• Start a search with / and include \%V in your pattern
• \%V tells Vim to only match text that falls within the previous visual selection
• Matches outside the selection are completely ignored

Example

Given the text:

foo bar baz
foo bar baz
foo bar baz
foo bar baz

Visually select lines 2 and 3 with 2GVj<Esc>. Now search with /\%Vfoo — only the foo on lines 2 and 3 are highlighted and matched. The foo on lines 1 and 4 are ignored.

This is especially powerful with substitution:

:'<,'>s/\%Vfoo/FOO/g

This replaces foo with FOO only within the previously selected area — critical for visual block selections where you don't want to affect the entire line.

Tips

• Without \%V, a substitute on '<,'> still operates on the full lines that overlap the selection — \%V restricts it to the exact visual area, which matters in block selections
• Place \%V at both ends for strictest matching: /\%Vpattern\%V ensures the entire match is within the selection
• Works with all visual modes: characterwise (v), linewise (V), and blockwise (<C-v>)
• Combine with other search atoms: /\%V\<word\> for whole-word search within the selection
• You can use \%V inside :g commands too: :g/\%Vpattern/d deletes only lines with matches inside the visual area