Search and Replace

Search

/pattern                       " Search forward
?pattern                       " Search backward
n                              " Next match
N                              " Previous match
*                              " Search for word under cursor (forward)
#                              " Search for word under cursor (backward)
:noh                           " Clear search highlighting

Search Options

:set ignorecase                " Case insensitive search
:set smartcase                 " Case sensitive if pattern has uppercase
:set incsearch                 " Show matches as you type
:set hlsearch                  " Highlight all matches

Search Within Selection

To search only within a visual selection, use the \%V atom:

/\%Vpattern                    " Search for pattern only within last selection

1. Make a visual selection
2. Press Escape (exits visual mode but remembers the selection)
3. Search with /\%Vpattern

Replace

The substitute command (:s) is Vim’s powerful find and replace tool. It uses regular expressions to match patterns and replace them with new text.

Basic Syntax

:s/old/new/                    " Replace first on current line
:s/old/new/g                   " Replace all on current line
:%s/old/new/g                  " Replace all in file
:%s/old/new/gc                 " Replace all with confirmation
:'<,'>s/old/new/g              " Replace in visual selection

Flags

g                              " Global (all occurrences on line)
c                              " Confirm each replacement
i                              " Case insensitive
I                              " Case sensitive

Command Breakdown

The substitute command :%s/ \+/\t/g breaks down as:

Part	Meaning
:	Enter command mode
%	Apply to all lines (without this, only affects current line)
s	Substitute command
/	Delimiter separating parts
\+	Pattern: one or more spaces (\+ means “one or more”)
/	Delimiter
\t	Replacement: a tab character
/	Final delimiter
g	Flag: replace all matches on each line

Range Examples

:s/old/new/              " Current line only, first match
:%s/old/new/g            " All lines, all matches
:5,10s/old/new/g         " Lines 5-10
:'<,'>s/old/new/g        " Visual selection
:.,$s/old/new/g          " Current line to end of file
:.,+5s/old/new/g         " Current line and next 5 lines

Without g flag: Only replaces the first match on each line. Run multiple times to replace successive matches.

Replace Within Selection

When you make a visual selection and type :, Vim automatically inserts '<,'> to scope the command to the selection:

:'<,'>s/old/new/g              " Replace within selected lines

To replace only within the visual selection (not entire lines), add the \%V atom:

:'<,'>s/\%Vold/new/g           " Replace only within the selection bounds

This is useful for block selections (Ctrl-v) where you want to limit replacements to the selected columns.

Project-Wide Search and Replace

For replacing across multiple files, use the quickfix list with :cdo:

:grep pattern **/*.js          " Populate quickfix with matches
:cdo s/old/new/g | update      " Replace in each match and save

See also: Quickfix