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Search is very common action and it is one of the actions we use most of the time. In this chapter we will see some command which will allow performing these actions effectively.

In this chapter, we will discuss following items −

  • Search settings
  • Search in current file
  • Search in multiple files
  • Search in help files

Search related settings

To perform incremental search execute following command −

:set incsearch

To highlight search execute following command −

:set hlsearch

This command will automatically highlight current matches. For instance in below image fox word is highlighted −

Related

To disable incremental and highlighted search execute following commands −

:set noincsearch :set nohlsearch

Search in current file

Search in forward direction

Use following commands to perform search in forward direction −

Sr.No Command & Description
1 /<expression>

Search expression in forward direction
2 n

Find next occurrence. This is same and find next
3 N

Find previous occurrence. This is same as find previous
4 //

Repeat previous forward search

Search in backward direction

Use following commands to perform search in backward direction

Sr.No Command & Description
1 ?<expression>

Search expression in backward direction
2 n

Find previous occurrence. This is same and find previous
3 N

Find next occurrence. This is same as find next
4 ??

Repeat previous backward search

Search word under cursor

Place cursor under any word and execute following commands to perform search operation −

Sr.No Command & Description
1 *

Search next occurrence of current word
2 #

Search previous occurrence of current word

Search in multiple files

Using vimgrep command we can search <expression> in multiple files. For instance below command searches string - Jarvis in all text files.

:vimgrep Jarvis *.txt

Note that to go to next and previous occurrence we have to use following commands −

Sr.No Command & Description
1 :cn

Go to next occurrence of expression
2 :cN

Go to previous occurrence of expression
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