Working with Vim

Search

Quick Search

See :help * Use * and # to navigate to the word under the cursor, * forward and # backwards. This searches within the current buffer.

I'll use this to check the spelling of variables, by using * on a variable it highlights all the words spelled the same. A nice quick way to check for misspellings.

Search Motions

Use /term to move forward to next "term", and use ?term to move backwards to previous "term".

See :help pattern-searches

You can combine with delete and yank, and any other operator. For example: d/apple will delete from current spot to the string apple. Vim highlights the words to show and you press enter to confirm.

I don't use the delete or copy actions with regex searches. I primarily use regexes to navigate around.

Remove Highlight

Search results remain highlighted after a search, this is useful when searching, but they often stick around too long. Use :nohlsearch to unhighlight the searches. I create the <Leader><Space> map for convenience.

" Unhighlight Search using ,SPC
nnoremap <silent> <Leader><Space> :nohlsearch<CR>

Try out the vim-slash plugin to clear highlighting automatically when the cursor is moved. This works pretty nicely, though additional changes the * search.

I setup the shortcut above to clear highlights; but since installing the vim-slash plugin, I use it less frequently. The plugin ends up clearing it most of the time, so it may be all you need.

Multiple Files

See :help grep Use :grep pattern {file} to search across multiple files.

For example: :grep TODO *.go would search all files with go extension for the text TODO.

Use :cn to jump to next match.

Use :cp to jump to previous match.

Use :copen to open list of matches in quickfix window

To recursively search through directories, use **/*.go or **/* as the {file} criteria.

Ripgrep and FZF

The :grep search works, but is verbose and blunt tool for searching code. I prefer to use ripgrep for search and fzf for fuzzy matching. Ripgrep by default ignores items in .gitignore, binaries, hidden files, and other coding parts.

See my Unix is my IDE for the full setup. Installing and using both are easier now that binaries are included in recent OS package repostiories.

I use the following two plugins for fzf. The first provides fzf commands in Vim, and the second creates some useful mappings leveraging those commands.

Plug 'junegunn/fzf',  { 'dir': '~/.fzf' }
Plug 'junegunn/fzf.vim'               " fuzzy search

I use a custom shortcut <Leader>f to use the fzf provided :Rg command to perform a search. Results are opened in a quickfix window and can be narrowed by typing additional in the window. Use arrow keys to navigate to result, enter to open. Use <tab> to select multiple items.

If you have the plugin installed, see :help fzf-vim-commands for details.

Search and Replace

See Substitute page for search and replace.