How do I run a substitution in Vim without getting an error if the pattern is not found?

Explanation

The e flag on the :substitute command silently suppresses the E486: Pattern not found error when the pattern has no matches. This is invaluable in macros, mappings, and scripts where a substitution might not always apply, and an unexpected error would abort execution or leave an annoying message.

How it works

Normally, :s/pattern/replacement/ raises an error if the pattern isn't found, which can interrupt a macro mid-run. Adding e at the end of the flags list changes this behavior:

:s/old/new/e     " no error if 'old' not found
:%s/TODO/DONE/ge " global substitution, silent on no-match

The e flag can be combined with other flags like g (global), i (case-insensitive), or c (confirm).

Example

Consider a macro that normalizes trailing spaces on lines that might or might not have them:

qa
:s/\s\+$//e
j
@aq

Without e, the macro would halt with an error on lines that have no trailing whitespace. With e, it silently skips them and continues.

Tips

• Use :s/pattern//en to count the number of matches without substituting and without error: the n flag reports the count, and e prevents an error if there are zero matches
• Essential when using :argdo %s/old/new/ge | update to refactor across many files where not all files contain the pattern
• Also works with :global: :g/pattern/s/old/new/e