Search and replace in Vim

[Xmen]

Hello all,

I installed Linux operating system and I am getting some command related problem in one of the editor in Linux named Vim. how do you do a search and replace? I am unable to find it in the help menu and it's driving me nuts.

If you all have any idea for vim, could someone walk me through it.Help would be appreciated.

Many thanks

[Devasis]

The vim is one of the powerful editor in Linux which is mostly used by system administrator.

It is very typical to use to create the text files,the normal desktop user getting so much complexity to use it because it is fully dependent on the command line argument.Every operation are being started by the command,from writing to editing the file.

The find and replace is also depends on the command based.To find the word and replace it ,you can use the command -

:%s/s->/t->/g<CR>

[Solomon]

The Vim editor uses the :s (substitute) command for search and replace operation .Using same operating systems, gvim contains the Find and Replace sub-menu in the Edit menu.

The search operation is performed as follows-.

/string - Search forward for occurrence of string in text
?string - Search backward for occurrence of string in text
n - Move to next occurrence of search string
N - Move to next occurrence of search string in opposite direction

[MrChris-]

Search and replace in Vim

The :substitute command is used for searching the text pattern and you can replace with another text string using the slash in your command line argument.

There are so many options can be passed with the command but I am going to list those which are commonly used for simple searching and replacing operation.

:%s/Roll/pen/g

The statement will Find each occurrence of 'Roll', and replace it with 'pen'.

:%s/Roll/pen/gc

The above will Change each 'Roll' to 'pen' before a message for confirmation.

[Calvin K]

During the search operation,You need only those string to search and replace which is exactly the same string that you entered for search.

There are some relative advance command for that.You have to just put some advance options.One of the case sensitive matching example is given below -

:%s/\<word1\>/word2/gc
:%s/word1/word2/gci
:%s/word1/word2/gcI

The first statement will change only whole words which is exactly matching 'word1' to 'word2' and then would ask you for confirmation.the second will change each 'word1' (case insensitive) to 'word2' with confirmation where as the third statement will do the same as second.

[Lillebror]

Range Searching and replacing

The words in your file can be searched using the match in Vim editor.There are some few option for range searching and replacing the word contents of your file.The statement as a command would be as follow to search and replace the word.

:%s/foo/<c-r><c-w>/g

It Replaces each occurrence of 'foo' with the word under the cursor.The option
<c-r><c-w> specifies that you have to press Ctrl-R then Ctrl-W. The word under the cursor will be inserted whatever you typed it.