Search

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published 2026-06-30 22:12:18 updated 2026-08-30 14:10:59

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@reading #vim

This post extracts some knowledge from Practical Vim Chapter 13 – Search.

Meet the Search Commands

markdown| Command | Effect |
|---------|--------|
| `n` | Jump to next match, preserving direction and offset |
| `N` | Jump to previous match, preserving direction and offset |
| `/<CR>` | Jump forward to next match of same pattern |
| `?<CR>` | Jump backward to previous match of same pattern |
| `gn` | Enable character-wise Visual mode and select next search match |
| `gN` | Enable character-wise Visual mode and select previous search match |

:nohlsearch command can be used to mute the search highlighting temporarily.

Shortcut	Meaning
`<C-r><C-w>`	Insert the word under the cursor into the command line
`<C-r><C-a>`	Insert the WORD under the cursor into the command line
`*`	Search forward for the word under the cursor
`#`	Search backward for the word under the cursor
`g*`	Search forward for the text under the cursor as a substring (not restricted to whole words)
`g#`	Search backward for the text under the cursor as a substring (not restricted to whole words)

/lang/e<CR> places the cursor at the end of the search match.

If original search starts from the head of search match, then use //e<CR> to switch to the end of search match.

If we can arrange things such that pressing the . command jumps to the next match and applies the last operation, then we can use one keystroke to repeat each change. I call this the Improved Dot Formula.