Search & Replace

Vim Text Editor Quick Reference

3 min read

Published Jul 6 2025

LinuxText Editor

Searching for text

Key	Description
/text	Search forwards for whatever text is specified, case sensitive, eg. /fish will find the text fish
/text\c	Search forwards for whatever text is specified, case insensitive, eg. /fish\c will find the text fish or Fish or FISH etc.
?text	Search backwards for whatever text is specified, case sensitive, eg. ?fish will find the text fish
?text\c	Search backwards for whatever text is specified, case insensitive, eg. ?fish\c will find the text fish or Fish or FISH etc.
/regex	Search forwards with a regex pattern, eg. /\d\{3} will search for a 3 digit number forwards
?regex	Search backwards with a regex pattern, eg. ?\d\{3} will search for a 3 digit number backwards
n	Next matching pattern
N	Previous matching pattern
*	Search for the current word forwards
#	Search for the current word backwards

Substitute

Substitute can be used to replace text in lines, syntax is :[range]s/pattern/replacement/[flags]

[range] - this is optional, list of options defined below.
pattern - this can be text or a regex pattern.
replacement - this is the text you want to add replace with.
[flags] - this is optional and determines how it will act, list of options defined below.

Examples:

:s/car/bike/

This will replace the first occurrence of car it finds in the file with the word bike.

:%s/car/bike/g

This will replace all occurrences of car with the word bike in the entire file. (% = all lines, g = global per line).

Ranges

Basic range elements:

Range	Meaning
`.`	Curren line
`$`	Last line in the file
`1`	Line 1
`5`	Line 5
`'a`	Line marked with mark `a`
`/pattern/`	Next line matching `pattern`
`?pattern?`	Previous line matching `pattern`
`+n`	`n` rows below current/range line
`-n`	`n` rows above current/range line

These can be combined to make ranges using commas , or semi colons ;:

Syntax	Meaning
`1,5`	Lines 1 through 5
`.,$`	From current line to end of the file
`'/,/\}`	From match of `/` to match of `}`
`'a,'b`	From mark `a` to mark `b`
`%`	Shortcut for the entire file (`1,$`)
`.,.+3`	Current line and the next 3 lines
`/start/,/end/`	All lines between (and including) those that match those patterns
`:5;+2`	Line 5 and the next 2 lines (so lines 5–7)

The difference between using , or ; :

, - Both line numbers are evaluated relative to line 1.
; - The second number is evaluated relative to the first.

Flags

Key	Description
g	Replace all occurances
i	Ignore case
I	Don't ignore case
c	Confirm each substitution

Global

Global allows you to select which lines you want to run a command on. So you can combine it with replace to only replace text in a selection of lines, or combine it with delete to only delete within certain lines etc.

The syntax is :[range]g/pattern/command

[range] - is an optional range.
pattern - is what pattern you want to match when selecting where you want to run a command.
command - is the command you would like to run.

Examples:

:g/dog/s/cat/duck/

On all lines containing dog, run the substitution s/cat/duck/.

:g/^#/d

Delete all lines starting with #.

:g/^\s*$/d

Delete all blank lines.