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title: Search and Replace
---
# Searching and Replacing in Vim
Search and replace in vim will search for all instances of a given text pattern and replace it with a string.
### Command Keys
The commands used for search and replace:
- `:substitute`
- `:s` (short abbreviated form of substitute)
### Command Structure
The structure used for search and replace:
`:[range]` `s` /`[pattern]` /`[string]` /`[flags]` `[count]`
where...
- `[range]` indicates the lines to search (e.g. `1` : first line, `$` : last line, `%` : all lines).
- `[pattern]` is the text pattern to be searched.
- `[string]` is the string that will replace the text pattern.
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- `[flags]` turn on additional search and replace options (e.g. `c` : confirm substitution, `g` : replace all occurrences in each line, `i` : ignore case).
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- `[count]` replaces in `[count]` lines starting from the last line in `[range]` (or current line if `[range]` omitted).
### Common Examples
Some common search and replace examples are listed below:
- `:s/foo/bar/` Change the first 'foo' to 'bar' in the current line.
- `:s/foo/bar/g` Change each 'foo' to 'bar' in the current line.
- `:%s/foo/bar/g` Change each 'foo' to 'bar' in all the lines.
- `:13s/foo/bar/g` Change each 'foo' to 'bar' in line 13.
- `:%s/foo/bar/cgi` Change every 'foo' to 'bar' in all lines.
