Search and Replace Patterns

Aman Saurav

| Jan 22, 2025 |

5 min read

#regex #subsitution

Vim’s substitution command is fast and supports full regex.

:[range]s/pattern/replacement/flags

Replace first occurrence in current line:
```
:s/foo/bar/
```
Replace all occurrences in current line:
```
:s/foo/bar/g
```
Replace all occurrences in entire file (The most common one):
```
:%s/foo/bar/g
```
% is a shortcut for the range 1,$ (entire file). Use /gc flag to confirm each replacement (Compare Mode).

Capture groups allow you to rearrange text. Example: Swap Firstname Lastname to Lastname, Firstname.

:%s/\(\w\+\) \(\w\+\)/\2, \1/g