I know that the incsearch setting controls how search in vim highlights as you type. I would like to have the same incremental search and highlight when using the replace command (:%s/foo/bar/ )
The easiest way to do that is to do a search like normal, using 'incsearch' to help ensure the pattern is matching what you want. Once you've got that nailed down, you can either
Leave out the search pattern in :%s//bar/. When there's no specified search pattern, the current value of the / register is used, which will be the search you just did.
Insert the search pattern into the :s command using Ctrl+r/ (see :help c_ctrl-r) or Ctrl+rCtrl+o/ (if the search contains control characters, like ^H). This is useful if you want to make some final tweaks to the pattern or if you want to have it in your command history so you can reuse it even after performing another search.
You could add c at the end of your command like that:
:%s/foo/bar/c
It will walk through all the instances of foo and ask for your confirmation (that's what the c stands for) before changing it to bar.
It's not exactly what you are after though.
Related
Is it possible to search within vim for more than one word?
For example:
Let's say i'm inside vim and I press / in order to start a search for a certain word, is it possible to search for more than one word in the same search?
Yes, you can have several branches in a search pattern:
/foo\|bar
See :help \|.
Use the OR operator
/first\|second
If you do this often, my SearchAlternatives plugin may be useful to you.
The plugin provides mappings and commands to add and subtract alternative
branches to the current search pattern. Currently searching for "foo", but
also want to find matches for "bar"? You could type /foo\|bar<CR> or
/<C-R>/\|bar<CR>, but once you want to limit the search to whole \<words\>
(like the * command), and juggle several alternatives, adding and
dropping them as you search, this plugin is quicker than manually editing the
search command-line (which you can still do).
Is there any command equivalent to "delete until the end of the current highlighted search match and enter insert mode"?
For example, I search for a term with:
/Element
It finds the string ExampleElementExample, places the cursor on the E in Element, and highlights Element.
I would like a generic command that applies to all searches that is equivalent to c7l or ctE in this particular case. However, I also want to be able to easily repeat this command to the next match by pressing n, ..
c//e basically does what I want, but falls short because it replaces the current search buffer, so n no longer takes me to the next match. Right now I'm using ctE or visual mode, but I feel like there must be a better option.
What is the fastest and most efficient way to execute this command?
If your Vim is recent enough (7.3 with a patch-level above 6xx), you can use gn:
barbazfoobazbar
/foo<CR>
barbaz[foo]bazbar
cgnvim<CR>
barbazvimbazbar
You can hit . to jump to the next foo and change it to vim in one go.
See :help gn.
I think the best option would be to use search and replace with the confirm flag.
:%s//replace/gc
If you leave the search string empty, it will automatically use the current search string. By the c flag, it asks you for permission to replace and upon decision, it will move to the next match. The g flag will find all matches, not just the first on a line, which I hope is what you are looking for.
You can use the following custom text object taken from Copy or change search hit on the Vim Tips Wiki:
" Make a simple "search" text object.
vnoremap <silent> s //e<C-r>=&selection=='exclusive'?'+1':''<CR><CR>
\:<C-u>call histdel('search',-1)<Bar>let #/=histget('search',-1)<CR>gv
omap s :normal vs<CR>
this is a simple query about the searching in vim editor.
consider that i searched for a string like "str" with
/str
now after this search i wanted to search for "strcat" like
/strcat
but, the point in here is that i dont want to type entire /str again.... just wanted to add the new text to /str. that is when we made the first search we type /str and for the second search i just wanted to type cat for searching the entire /strcat.
can any of you vi guru's tell me if it is possible for us to do some search like this in vi.
thanks in advance
The / key begins a search string. up arrow recalls the previous line(s). Therefore,
/ up-arrow cat
will resume your search.
Besides up-arrow to get the previous search, you can also do /^f to be able to fully edit many previous searches. (That's / followed by Ctrl+F). Put the cursor on the previous search that you want to edit, edit it, and hit return.
Others have answered the question you asked, but on the off chance that incremental search would better suit your workflow, I thought I would mention it.
If you're only searching once and finding out that what you're searching for is not unique enough and you need to add more characters, incremental search will show you that before you press enter.
Put the following in your .vimrc to enable incremental search:
set incsearch
How can I bring back the last string I used for a search or a search&replace?
For example, assume that I enter :%s/some_text/some_other_text/gc and vim gives me the E486: Patterns not found: some_text error message back. I then realize that I actually meant to write some_magic_text instead of some_text. At that point, how can I get back my original string in the bottom command row (or whatever it is called) so I can change it and do a second search? Is there a nifty little command for that?
In this brief example it looks unnecessary, but when the text you are looking to replace is mighty long and you just typed one letter wrong, it is fantastically annoying to have to retype everything.
And I am using MacVim if that makes any difference.
From the normal mode, hit q/ to navigate through your search history!
Check out this vimvcast which explains what you want.
More generally, you can recall any command you have previously typed by entering the first few characters, and then use arrow multiple times to navigate in history.
In your case, you could type:
:%s<Up>
See :help history
This answer might be good an improvement to what you are after, after all.
Use search with highlighting, to interactively check if the regex you are crafting is definitely working, and then use it in a search-replace.
:se is (incsearch, better put se is in your .vimrc)
/<search term>
check with n/N if you are happy with the matches
:s%//<replace term>/g
When omitting the <search term> in the search-replace in 4., the last used search will be used.
For acessing the list of last (search-replace) commands use q:, or as already noted q/ for the list of last search terms.
Bonus:
When using :se gd, s/<search>/<replace> will behave as s/<search>/<replace>/g.
Accessing just the first search match in each line can then still be done with adding /g, so essentially both behaviours are just switched.
/ and then up to bring up the last search query.
I'm getting more and more comfortable with Vim after a few months.
BUT, there is only one simple feature I can't get any answer from the web. That is "Search and replace the results". The problem is that I know:
:/keyword to search, and hit enter "keyword" will be highlighted (of course with set hlsearch)
n, or N to navigate
:% s/keyword/new_keyword/g to replace all occurences of keyword with new_keyword.
BUT, I would think that there must be a way to search, and replace the matched keyword (highlighted) with any new_keyword WITHOUT doing ":% s/keyword/new_keyword/g", which is a lot of typing considering search & replace is such a day-to-day feature.
Any answers/comments will be greatly appreciated!
If you've already done a search you can do a substitution for the same pattern by simply leaving out the pattern in the substitute command. eg:
/keyword
searchs for "keyword", and then:
:%s//new_keyword/g
will replace all occurrences of "keyword" with "new_keyword".
Searching and using the dot command (you didn't meantion you are using the dot command, that's why I highlight it) to repeat the last input action is my best bet here.
I use s///g for search and replace.
Well, since #keyword# and #new_keyword# account for most of the characters, and you need some way to differentiate between them (i.e., a character in vim, or tab between entry fields in dialog in a different editor), you're left with maybe four or five keystrokes beyond that.
So I think you're probably overestimating number of keystrokes and also forgetting that (1) it becomes very natural, and (2) working this way allows you also to naturally modify the action performed by specifying a different range or option flag.
But you can cut down on keystrokes. If you want you can map a key to automatically bring up the command line with '%s/' already in place. e.g.:
nmap s :%s/
The command above would remap 's' (I'm not recommending remapping to that key, but it gives the idea) and set you up to insert the keyword.
Also, you can set the 'gdefault' option to default to substituting multiple times per line. This lets you skip the ending '/g' in your keystrokes:
set gdefault
See ':h gdefault' for help section on that option.
In the end I would say just get used to the default way it works, because using it that way allows you to keep same basic operation when you want to specify different ranges or option flags, and creating a new special map is just another thing to remember. gdefault may be worth setting if you think you're going to want it majority of time, adding /g flag at end when gdefault is set has effect of turning /g off. . .
Move to the first highlighted word then record a macro for replacing the word and moving to the next one, e.g:
gg
n
qq
caw new_word^[
n
q
#q
##
##
...