freeCodeCamp/guide/english/vim/search-and-replace/index.md

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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.
• [flags] turn on additional search and replace options (e.g. c: confirm substitution, g: replace all occurences in each line, i: ignore case).
• [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.