How do I search forward for text in Vim?
/{pattern}
The / command initiates a forward search in the file.
Tag: search
How do I search backward for text in Vim?
?{pattern}
The ? command searches backward from the cursor position.
How do I search and replace text containing special characters?
:%s/\V literal.text/replacement/g
The \V (very nomagic) flag treats all characters as literal except for \.
How do I search and replace across multiple files using the quickfix list?
:cdo s/old/new/g
The :cdo command executes a command on every entry in the quickfix list.
How do I see search results as I type the pattern?
:set incsearch
The incsearch option enables incremental search, which highlights matches in real time as you type the search pattern.
How do I land on a specific position relative to a search match?
/pattern/e
Search offsets let you place the cursor at a specific position relative to the match.
How do I highlight trailing whitespace with a custom color in Vim?
highlight TrailingWhitespace ctermbg=red and match TrailingWhitespace /\s\+$/
How it works Vim's highlight and match commands let you create custom visual indicators.
How do I use a register value as the replacement string in a substitution?
:%s/pattern/\=@a/g
How it works In Vim's substitute command, the replacement string can be a Vimscript expression when prefixed with \=.
How do I search for text I just yanked using the register?
/<C-r>0
How it works After yanking text, you can use it directly as a search pattern by inserting the yank register contents into the search prompt.
How do I enable smart case-sensitive searching in Vim?
:set ignorecase smartcase
How it works By setting both ignorecase and smartcase, Vim uses an intelligent case sensitivity rule for searches: If your search pattern is all lowercase, the
How do I search for a pattern only within specific columns of a line?
/\%>5c\%<20cpattern
How it works Vim's search patterns support column position constraints using the \%c family of atoms.
How do I search and replace only whole words and not partial matches in Vim?
:%s/\<word\>/replacement/g
How it works In Vim's regular expressions, \ are word boundary anchors: \ matches the end of a word.
How do I match a pattern but only highlight or capture part of it using \zs and \ze?
\zs and \ze
How it works Vim's \zs (set start) and \ze (set end) atoms let you define which portion of a pattern counts as the actual match, even though the full pattern is
How do I copy all lines matching a pattern to the end of the file?
:g/pattern/t$
How it works The :g (global) command combined with :t (copy) lets you duplicate all lines matching a pattern to a specific location.
How do I list all lines in the current file matching the word under my cursor?
[I
How it works The [I command searches the current file (and included files) for the word under the cursor and displays a list of all matching lines with their li
What are Vim's built-in character class shortcuts for search patterns?
\d \w \s \a \l \u
How it works Vim provides shorthand character classes that save you from writing out full bracket expressions.
How do I perform a non-greedy (minimal) match in Vim search?
.\{-}
How it works In most regex engines, ? or +? make quantifiers non-greedy (matching as little as possible).
How do I search for multiple alternative patterns at once in Vim?
/foo\|bar
How it works The \ operator in Vim's search pattern works like a logical OR, letting you match any one of several alternatives.
How do I browse and reuse my previous search patterns in Vim?
q/
How it works Vim keeps a history of all your search patterns.
How do I search case-insensitively in Vim without changing global settings?
/\cpattern
How it works By default, Vim searches are case-sensitive: /Hello will not match hello or HELLO.