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annotate runtime/doc/pattern.txt @ 4444:ccecb03e5e8b v7.3.970
updated for version 7.3.970
Problem: Syntax highlighting can be slow.
Solution: Include the NFA regexp engine. Add the 'regexpengine' option to
select which one is used. (various authors, including Ken Takata,
Andrei Aiordachioaie, Russ Cox, Xiaozhou Liua, Ian Young)
| author | Bram Moolenaar <bram@vim.org> |
|---|---|
| date | Sun, 19 May 2013 19:40:29 +0200 |
| parents | 22fa3049e934 |
| children | 2eb30f341e8d |
| rev | line source |
|---|---|
| 4444 | 1 *pattern.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2013 May 17 |
| 7 | 2 |
| 3 | |
| 4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | |
| 7 Patterns and search commands *pattern-searches* | |
| 8 | |
| 9 The very basics can be found in section |03.9| of the user manual. A few more | |
| 10 explanations are in chapter 27 |usr_27.txt|. | |
| 11 | |
| 12 1. Search commands |search-commands| | |
| 13 2. The definition of a pattern |search-pattern| | |
| 14 3. Magic |/magic| | |
| 15 4. Overview of pattern items |pattern-overview| | |
| 16 5. Multi items |pattern-multi-items| | |
| 17 6. Ordinary atoms |pattern-atoms| | |
| 18 7. Ignoring case in a pattern |/ignorecase| | |
| 714 | 19 8. Composing characters |patterns-composing| |
| 20 9. Compare with Perl patterns |perl-patterns| | |
| 21 10. Highlighting matches |match-highlight| | |
| 7 | 22 |
| 23 ============================================================================== | |
| 3153 | 24 1. Search commands *search-commands* |
| 7 | 25 |
| 26 */* | |
| 27 /{pattern}[/]<CR> Search forward for the [count]'th occurrence of | |
| 28 {pattern} |exclusive|. | |
| 29 | |
| 30 /{pattern}/{offset}<CR> Search forward for the [count]'th occurrence of | |
| 31 {pattern} and go |{offset}| lines up or down. | |
| 32 |linewise|. | |
| 33 | |
| 34 */<CR>* | |
|
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35 /<CR> Search forward for the [count]'th occurrence of the |
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36 latest used pattern |last-pattern| with latest used |
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37 |{offset}|. |
| 7 | 38 |
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39 //{offset}<CR> Search forward for the [count]'th occurrence of the |
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parents:
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40 latest used pattern |last-pattern| with new |
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de5a43c5eedc
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parents:
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changeset
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41 |{offset}|. If {offset} is empty no offset is used. |
| 7 | 42 |
| 43 *?* | |
| 44 ?{pattern}[?]<CR> Search backward for the [count]'th previous | |
| 45 occurrence of {pattern} |exclusive|. | |
| 46 | |
| 47 ?{pattern}?{offset}<CR> Search backward for the [count]'th previous | |
| 48 occurrence of {pattern} and go |{offset}| lines up or | |
| 49 down |linewise|. | |
| 50 | |
| 51 *?<CR>* | |
|
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Bram Moolenaar <bram@zimbu.org>
parents:
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diff
changeset
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52 ?<CR> Search backward for the [count]'th occurrence of the |
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de5a43c5eedc
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Bram Moolenaar <bram@zimbu.org>
parents:
1702
diff
changeset
|
53 latest used pattern |last-pattern| with latest used |
|
de5a43c5eedc
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Bram Moolenaar <bram@zimbu.org>
parents:
1702
diff
changeset
|
54 |{offset}|. |
| 7 | 55 |
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parents:
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56 ??{offset}<CR> Search backward for the [count]'th occurrence of the |
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de5a43c5eedc
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Bram Moolenaar <bram@zimbu.org>
parents:
1702
diff
changeset
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57 latest used pattern |last-pattern| with new |
|
de5a43c5eedc
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Bram Moolenaar <bram@zimbu.org>
parents:
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diff
changeset
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58 |{offset}|. If {offset} is empty no offset is used. |
| 7 | 59 |
| 60 *n* | |
| 61 n Repeat the latest "/" or "?" [count] times. | |
| 62 |last-pattern| {Vi: no count} | |
| 63 | |
| 64 *N* | |
| 65 N Repeat the latest "/" or "?" [count] times in | |
| 66 opposite direction. |last-pattern| {Vi: no count} | |
| 67 | |
| 68 *star* *E348* *E349* | |
| 69 * Search forward for the [count]'th occurrence of the | |
| 70 word nearest to the cursor. The word used for the | |
| 71 search is the first of: | |
| 72 1. the keyword under the cursor |'iskeyword'| | |
| 73 2. the first keyword after the cursor, in the | |
| 74 current line | |
| 75 3. the non-blank word under the cursor | |
| 76 4. the first non-blank word after the cursor, | |
| 77 in the current line | |
| 78 Only whole keywords are searched for, like with the | |
| 79 command "/\<keyword\>". |exclusive| {not in Vi} | |
| 80 'ignorecase' is used, 'smartcase' is not. | |
| 81 | |
| 82 *#* | |
| 83 # Same as "*", but search backward. The pound sign | |
| 84 (character 163) also works. If the "#" key works as | |
| 85 backspace, try using "stty erase <BS>" before starting | |
| 86 Vim (<BS> is CTRL-H or a real backspace). {not in Vi} | |
| 87 | |
| 88 *gstar* | |
| 89 g* Like "*", but don't put "\<" and "\>" around the word. | |
| 90 This makes the search also find matches that are not a | |
| 91 whole word. {not in Vi} | |
| 92 | |
| 93 *g#* | |
| 94 g# Like "#", but don't put "\<" and "\>" around the word. | |
| 95 This makes the search also find matches that are not a | |
| 96 whole word. {not in Vi} | |
| 97 | |
| 98 *gd* | |
| 99 gd Goto local Declaration. When the cursor is on a local | |
| 100 variable, this command will jump to its declaration. | |
| 101 First Vim searches for the start of the current | |
| 102 function, just like "[[". If it is not found the | |
| 103 search stops in line 1. If it is found, Vim goes back | |
| 104 until a blank line is found. From this position Vim | |
| 105 searches for the keyword under the cursor, like with | |
| 106 "*", but lines that look like a comment are ignored | |
| 107 (see 'comments' option). | |
| 108 Note that this is not guaranteed to work, Vim does not | |
| 109 really check the syntax, it only searches for a match | |
| 110 with the keyword. If included files also need to be | |
| 111 searched use the commands listed in |include-search|. | |
| 112 After this command |n| searches forward for the next | |
| 113 match (not backward). | |
| 114 {not in Vi} | |
| 115 | |
| 116 *gD* | |
| 117 gD Goto global Declaration. When the cursor is on a | |
| 118 global variable that is defined in the file, this | |
| 119 command will jump to its declaration. This works just | |
| 120 like "gd", except that the search for the keyword | |
| 121 always starts in line 1. {not in Vi} | |
| 122 | |
| 523 | 123 *1gd* |
| 124 1gd Like "gd", but ignore matches inside a {} block that | |
| 125 ends before the cursor position. {not in Vi} | |
| 126 | |
| 127 *1gD* | |
| 128 1gD Like "gD", but ignore matches inside a {} block that | |
| 129 ends before the cursor position. {not in Vi} | |
| 130 | |
| 7 | 131 *CTRL-C* |
| 132 CTRL-C Interrupt current (search) command. Use CTRL-Break on | |
| 133 MS-DOS |dos-CTRL-Break|. | |
| 134 In Normal mode, any pending command is aborted. | |
| 135 | |
| 136 *:noh* *:nohlsearch* | |
| 137 :noh[lsearch] Stop the highlighting for the 'hlsearch' option. It | |
| 138 is automatically turned back on when using a search | |
| 139 command, or setting the 'hlsearch' option. | |
| 140 This command doesn't work in an autocommand, because | |
| 141 the highlighting state is saved and restored when | |
| 142 executing autocommands |autocmd-searchpat|. | |
| 1620 | 143 Same thing for when invoking a user function. |
| 7 | 144 |
| 145 While typing the search pattern the current match will be shown if the | |
| 146 'incsearch' option is on. Remember that you still have to finish the search | |
| 147 command with <CR> to actually position the cursor at the displayed match. Or | |
| 148 use <Esc> to abandon the search. | |
| 149 | |
| 150 All matches for the last used search pattern will be highlighted if you set | |
| 151 the 'hlsearch' option. This can be suspended with the |:nohlsearch| command. | |
| 152 | |
| 3153 | 153 When no match is found you get the error: *E486* Pattern not found |
| 154 Note that for the |:global| command this behaves like a normal message, for Vi | |
| 155 compatibility. For the |:s| command the "e" flag can be used to avoid the | |
| 156 error message |:s_flags|. | |
| 157 | |
| 7 | 158 *search-offset* *{offset}* |
| 159 These commands search for the specified pattern. With "/" and "?" an | |
| 160 additional offset may be given. There are two types of offsets: line offsets | |
| 161 and character offsets. {the character offsets are not in Vi} | |
| 162 | |
| 163 The offset gives the cursor position relative to the found match: | |
| 164 [num] [num] lines downwards, in column 1 | |
| 165 +[num] [num] lines downwards, in column 1 | |
| 166 -[num] [num] lines upwards, in column 1 | |
| 167 e[+num] [num] characters to the right of the end of the match | |
| 168 e[-num] [num] characters to the left of the end of the match | |
| 169 s[+num] [num] characters to the right of the start of the match | |
| 170 s[-num] [num] characters to the left of the start of the match | |
| 171 b[+num] [num] identical to s[+num] above (mnemonic: begin) | |
| 172 b[-num] [num] identical to s[-num] above (mnemonic: begin) | |
| 667 | 173 ;{pattern} perform another search, see |//;| |
| 7 | 174 |
| 175 If a '-' or '+' is given but [num] is omitted, a count of one will be used. | |
| 176 When including an offset with 'e', the search becomes inclusive (the | |
| 177 character the cursor lands on is included in operations). | |
| 178 | |
| 179 Examples: | |
| 180 | |
| 181 pattern cursor position ~ | |
| 182 /test/+1 one line below "test", in column 1 | |
| 183 /test/e on the last t of "test" | |
| 184 /test/s+2 on the 's' of "test" | |
| 185 /test/b-3 three characters before "test" | |
| 186 | |
| 187 If one of these commands is used after an operator, the characters between | |
| 188 the cursor position before and after the search is affected. However, if a | |
| 189 line offset is given, the whole lines between the two cursor positions are | |
| 190 affected. | |
| 191 | |
| 192 An example of how to search for matches with a pattern and change the match | |
| 193 with another word: > | |
| 194 /foo<CR> find "foo" | |
| 195 c//e change until end of match | |
| 196 bar<Esc> type replacement | |
| 197 //<CR> go to start of next match | |
| 198 c//e change until end of match | |
| 199 beep<Esc> type another replacement | |
| 200 etc. | |
| 201 < | |
| 202 *//;* *E386* | |
| 203 A very special offset is ';' followed by another search command. For example: > | |
| 204 | |
| 205 /test 1/;/test | |
| 206 /test.*/+1;?ing? | |
| 207 | |
| 208 The first one first finds the next occurrence of "test 1", and then the first | |
| 209 occurrence of "test" after that. | |
| 210 | |
| 211 This is like executing two search commands after each other, except that: | |
| 212 - It can be used as a single motion command after an operator. | |
| 213 - The direction for a following "n" or "N" command comes from the first | |
| 214 search command. | |
| 215 - When an error occurs the cursor is not moved at all. | |
| 216 | |
| 217 *last-pattern* | |
| 218 The last used pattern and offset are remembered. They can be used to repeat | |
| 219 the search, possibly in another direction or with another count. Note that | |
| 220 two patterns are remembered: One for 'normal' search commands and one for the | |
| 221 substitute command ":s". Each time an empty pattern is given, the previously | |
| 2725 | 222 used pattern is used. However, if there is no previous search command, a |
| 223 previous substitute pattern is used, if possible. | |
| 7 | 224 |
| 225 The 'magic' option sticks with the last used pattern. If you change 'magic', | |
| 226 this will not change how the last used pattern will be interpreted. | |
| 227 The 'ignorecase' option does not do this. When 'ignorecase' is changed, it | |
| 228 will result in the pattern to match other text. | |
| 229 | |
| 230 All matches for the last used search pattern will be highlighted if you set | |
| 231 the 'hlsearch' option. | |
| 232 | |
| 233 To clear the last used search pattern: > | |
| 234 :let @/ = "" | |
| 235 This will not set the pattern to an empty string, because that would match | |
| 236 everywhere. The pattern is really cleared, like when starting Vim. | |
| 237 | |
| 133 | 238 The search usually skips matches that don't move the cursor. Whether the next |
| 7 | 239 match is found at the next character or after the skipped match depends on the |
| 240 'c' flag in 'cpoptions'. See |cpo-c|. | |
| 241 with 'c' flag: "/..." advances 1 to 3 characters | |
| 242 without 'c' flag: "/..." advances 1 character | |
| 243 The unpredictability with the 'c' flag is caused by starting the search in the | |
| 244 first column, skipping matches until one is found past the cursor position. | |
| 245 | |
| 133 | 246 When searching backwards, searching starts at the start of the line, using the |
| 247 'c' flag in 'cpoptions' as described above. Then the last match before the | |
| 248 cursor position is used. | |
| 249 | |
| 7 | 250 In Vi the ":tag" command sets the last search pattern when the tag is searched |
| 251 for. In Vim this is not done, the previous search pattern is still remembered, | |
| 252 unless the 't' flag is present in 'cpoptions'. The search pattern is always | |
| 253 put in the search history. | |
| 254 | |
| 255 If the 'wrapscan' option is on (which is the default), searches wrap around | |
| 256 the end of the buffer. If 'wrapscan' is not set, the backward search stops | |
| 257 at the beginning and the forward search stops at the end of the buffer. If | |
| 258 'wrapscan' is set and the pattern was not found the error message "pattern | |
| 259 not found" is given, and the cursor will not be moved. If 'wrapscan' is not | |
| 260 set the message becomes "search hit BOTTOM without match" when searching | |
| 261 forward, or "search hit TOP without match" when searching backward. If | |
| 262 wrapscan is set and the search wraps around the end of the file the message | |
| 263 "search hit TOP, continuing at BOTTOM" or "search hit BOTTOM, continuing at | |
| 264 TOP" is given when searching backwards or forwards respectively. This can be | |
| 265 switched off by setting the 's' flag in the 'shortmess' option. The highlight | |
| 266 method 'w' is used for this message (default: standout). | |
| 267 | |
| 268 *search-range* | |
| 625 | 269 You can limit the search command "/" to a certain range of lines by including |
| 270 \%>l items. For example, to match the word "limit" below line 199 and above | |
| 271 line 300: > | |
| 272 /\%>199l\%<300llimit | |
| 273 Also see |/\%>l|. | |
| 274 | |
| 275 Another way is to use the ":substitute" command with the 'c' flag. Example: > | |
| 7 | 276 :.,300s/Pattern//gc |
| 277 This command will search from the cursor position until line 300 for | |
| 278 "Pattern". At the match, you will be asked to type a character. Type 'q' to | |
| 279 stop at this match, type 'n' to find the next match. | |
| 280 | |
| 281 The "*", "#", "g*" and "g#" commands look for a word near the cursor in this | |
| 282 order, the first one that is found is used: | |
| 283 - The keyword currently under the cursor. | |
| 284 - The first keyword to the right of the cursor, in the same line. | |
| 285 - The WORD currently under the cursor. | |
| 286 - The first WORD to the right of the cursor, in the same line. | |
| 287 The keyword may only contain letters and characters in 'iskeyword'. | |
| 288 The WORD may contain any non-blanks (<Tab>s and/or <Space>s). | |
| 289 Note that if you type with ten fingers, the characters are easy to remember: | |
| 290 the "#" is under your left hand middle finger (search to the left and up) and | |
| 291 the "*" is under your right hand middle finger (search to the right and down). | |
| 292 (this depends on your keyboard layout though). | |
| 293 | |
| 294 ============================================================================== | |
| 295 2. The definition of a pattern *search-pattern* *pattern* *[pattern]* | |
| 296 *regular-expression* *regexp* *Pattern* | |
| 190 | 297 *E76* *E383* *E476* |
| 7 | 298 |
| 299 For starters, read chapter 27 of the user manual |usr_27.txt|. | |
| 300 | |
| 301 */bar* */\bar* */pattern* | |
| 302 1. A pattern is one or more branches, separated by "\|". It matches anything | |
| 303 that matches one of the branches. Example: "foo\|beep" matches "foo" and | |
| 304 matches "beep". If more than one branch matches, the first one is used. | |
| 305 | |
| 306 pattern ::= branch | |
| 307 or branch \| branch | |
| 308 or branch \| branch \| branch | |
| 309 etc. | |
| 310 | |
| 311 */branch* */\&* | |
| 312 2. A branch is one or more concats, separated by "\&". It matches the last | |
| 313 concat, but only if all the preceding concats also match at the same | |
| 314 position. Examples: | |
| 315 "foobeep\&..." matches "foo" in "foobeep". | |
| 316 ".*Peter\&.*Bob" matches in a line containing both "Peter" and "Bob" | |
| 317 | |
| 318 branch ::= concat | |
| 319 or concat \& concat | |
| 320 or concat \& concat \& concat | |
| 321 etc. | |
| 322 | |
| 323 */concat* | |
| 324 3. A concat is one or more pieces, concatenated. It matches a match for the | |
| 325 first piece, followed by a match for the second piece, etc. Example: | |
| 326 "f[0-9]b", first matches "f", then a digit and then "b". | |
| 327 | |
| 328 concat ::= piece | |
| 329 or piece piece | |
| 330 or piece piece piece | |
| 331 etc. | |
| 332 | |
| 333 */piece* | |
| 334 4. A piece is an atom, possibly followed by a multi, an indication of how many | |
| 335 times the atom can be matched. Example: "a*" matches any sequence of "a" | |
| 336 characters: "", "a", "aa", etc. See |/multi|. | |
| 337 | |
| 338 piece ::= atom | |
| 339 or atom multi | |
| 340 | |
| 341 */atom* | |
| 342 5. An atom can be one of a long list of items. Many atoms match one character | |
| 343 in the text. It is often an ordinary character or a character class. | |
| 344 Braces can be used to make a pattern into an atom. The "\z(\)" construct | |
| 345 is only for syntax highlighting. | |
| 346 | |
| 347 atom ::= ordinary-atom |/ordinary-atom| | |
| 348 or \( pattern \) |/\(| | |
| 349 or \%( pattern \) |/\%(| | |
| 350 or \z( pattern \) |/\z(| | |
| 351 | |
| 352 | |
| 4444 | 353 */\%#=* *two-engines* |
| 354 Vim includes two regexp engines: | |
| 355 1. An old, backtracking engine that supports everything. | |
| 356 2. A new, NFA engine that works much faster on some patterns, but does not | |
| 357 support everything. | |
| 358 | |
| 359 Vim will automatically select the right engine for you. However, if you run | |
| 360 into a problem or want to specifically select one engine or the other, you can | |
| 361 prepend one of the following to the pattern: | |
| 362 | |
| 363 \%#=0 Force automatic selection. Only has an effect when | |
| 364 'regexpengine' has been set to a non-zero value. | |
| 365 \%#=1 Force using the old engine. | |
| 366 \%#=2 Force using the NFA engine. | |
| 367 | |
| 368 You can also use the 'regexpengine' option to change the default. | |
| 369 | |
| 370 *E864* *E868* *E874* *E875* *E876* *E877* *E878* | |
| 371 If selecting the NFA engine and it runs into something that is not implemented | |
| 372 the pattern will not match. This is only useful when debugging Vim. | |
| 373 | |
| 7 | 374 ============================================================================== |
| 840 | 375 3. Magic */magic* |
| 376 | |
| 377 Some characters in the pattern are taken literally. They match with the same | |
| 378 character in the text. When preceded with a backslash however, these | |
| 379 characters get a special meaning. | |
| 380 | |
| 381 Other characters have a special meaning without a backslash. They need to be | |
| 382 preceded with a backslash to match literally. | |
| 383 | |
| 384 If a character is taken literally or not depends on the 'magic' option and the | |
| 385 items mentioned next. | |
| 386 */\m* */\M* | |
| 387 Use of "\m" makes the pattern after it be interpreted as if 'magic' is set, | |
| 388 ignoring the actual value of the 'magic' option. | |
| 389 Use of "\M" makes the pattern after it be interpreted as if 'nomagic' is used. | |
| 390 */\v* */\V* | |
| 391 Use of "\v" means that in the pattern after it all ASCII characters except | |
| 392 '0'-'9', 'a'-'z', 'A'-'Z' and '_' have a special meaning. "very magic" | |
| 393 | |
| 394 Use of "\V" means that in the pattern after it only the backslash has a | |
| 395 special meaning. "very nomagic" | |
| 396 | |
| 397 Examples: | |
| 398 after: \v \m \M \V matches ~ | |
| 399 'magic' 'nomagic' | |
| 400 $ $ $ \$ matches end-of-line | |
| 401 . . \. \. matches any character | |
| 402 * * \* \* any number of the previous atom | |
| 403 () \(\) \(\) \(\) grouping into an atom | |
| 404 | \| \| \| separating alternatives | |
| 405 \a \a \a \a alphabetic character | |
| 406 \\ \\ \\ \\ literal backslash | |
| 407 \. \. . . literal dot | |
| 408 \{ { { { literal '{' | |
| 409 a a a a literal 'a' | |
| 410 | |
| 411 {only Vim supports \m, \M, \v and \V} | |
| 412 | |
| 413 It is recommended to always keep the 'magic' option at the default setting, | |
| 414 which is 'magic'. This avoids portability problems. To make a pattern immune | |
| 415 to the 'magic' option being set or not, put "\m" or "\M" at the start of the | |
| 416 pattern. | |
| 417 | |
| 418 ============================================================================== | |
| 7 | 419 4. Overview of pattern items *pattern-overview* |
| 4444 | 420 *E865* *E866* *E867* *E869* |
| 7 | 421 |
| 422 Overview of multi items. */multi* *E61* *E62* | |
| 4444 | 423 More explanation and examples below, follow the links. *E64* *E871* |
| 7 | 424 |
| 425 multi ~ | |
| 426 'magic' 'nomagic' matches of the preceding atom ~ | |
| 427 |/star| * \* 0 or more as many as possible | |
| 428 |/\+| \+ \+ 1 or more as many as possible (*) | |
| 429 |/\=| \= \= 0 or 1 as many as possible (*) | |
| 430 |/\?| \? \? 0 or 1 as many as possible (*) | |
| 431 | |
| 432 |/\{| \{n,m} \{n,m} n to m as many as possible (*) | |
| 433 \{n} \{n} n exactly (*) | |
| 434 \{n,} \{n,} at least n as many as possible (*) | |
| 435 \{,m} \{,m} 0 to m as many as possible (*) | |
| 436 \{} \{} 0 or more as many as possible (same as *) (*) | |
| 437 | |
| 438 |/\{-| \{-n,m} \{-n,m} n to m as few as possible (*) | |
| 439 \{-n} \{-n} n exactly (*) | |
| 440 \{-n,} \{-n,} at least n as few as possible (*) | |
| 441 \{-,m} \{-,m} 0 to m as few as possible (*) | |
| 442 \{-} \{-} 0 or more as few as possible (*) | |
| 443 | |
| 444 *E59* | |
| 445 |/\@>| \@> \@> 1, like matching a whole pattern (*) | |
| 446 |/\@=| \@= \@= nothing, requires a match |/zero-width| (*) | |
| 447 |/\@!| \@! \@! nothing, requires NO match |/zero-width| (*) | |
| 448 |/\@<=| \@<= \@<= nothing, requires a match behind |/zero-width| (*) | |
| 449 |/\@<!| \@<! \@<! nothing, requires NO match behind |/zero-width| (*) | |
| 450 | |
| 451 (*) {not in Vi} | |
| 452 | |
| 453 | |
| 454 Overview of ordinary atoms. */ordinary-atom* | |
| 455 More explanation and examples below, follow the links. | |
| 456 | |
| 457 ordinary atom ~ | |
| 458 magic nomagic matches ~ | |
| 459 |/^| ^ ^ start-of-line (at start of pattern) |/zero-width| | |
| 460 |/\^| \^ \^ literal '^' | |
| 461 |/\_^| \_^ \_^ start-of-line (used anywhere) |/zero-width| | |
| 462 |/$| $ $ end-of-line (at end of pattern) |/zero-width| | |
| 463 |/\$| \$ \$ literal '$' | |
| 464 |/\_$| \_$ \_$ end-of-line (used anywhere) |/zero-width| | |
| 465 |/.| . \. any single character (not an end-of-line) | |
| 466 |/\_.| \_. \_. any single character or end-of-line | |
| 467 |/\<| \< \< beginning of a word |/zero-width| | |
| 468 |/\>| \> \> end of a word |/zero-width| | |
| 469 |/\zs| \zs \zs anything, sets start of match | |
| 470 |/\ze| \ze \ze anything, sets end of match | |
| 471 |/\%^| \%^ \%^ beginning of file |/zero-width| *E71* | |
| 472 |/\%$| \%$ \%$ end of file |/zero-width| | |
| 640 | 473 |/\%V| \%V \%V inside Visual area |/zero-width| |
| 7 | 474 |/\%#| \%# \%# cursor position |/zero-width| |
| 640 | 475 |/\%'m| \%'m \%'m mark m position |/zero-width| |
| 7 | 476 |/\%l| \%23l \%23l in line 23 |/zero-width| |
| 477 |/\%c| \%23c \%23c in column 23 |/zero-width| | |
| 478 |/\%v| \%23v \%23v in virtual column 23 |/zero-width| | |
| 479 | |
| 20 | 480 Character classes {not in Vi}: */character-classes* |
| 7 | 481 |/\i| \i \i identifier character (see 'isident' option) |
| 482 |/\I| \I \I like "\i", but excluding digits | |
| 483 |/\k| \k \k keyword character (see 'iskeyword' option) | |
| 484 |/\K| \K \K like "\k", but excluding digits | |
| 485 |/\f| \f \f file name character (see 'isfname' option) | |
| 486 |/\F| \F \F like "\f", but excluding digits | |
| 487 |/\p| \p \p printable character (see 'isprint' option) | |
| 488 |/\P| \P \P like "\p", but excluding digits | |
| 489 |/\s| \s \s whitespace character: <Space> and <Tab> | |
| 490 |/\S| \S \S non-whitespace character; opposite of \s | |
| 491 |/\d| \d \d digit: [0-9] | |
| 492 |/\D| \D \D non-digit: [^0-9] | |
| 493 |/\x| \x \x hex digit: [0-9A-Fa-f] | |
| 494 |/\X| \X \X non-hex digit: [^0-9A-Fa-f] | |
| 495 |/\o| \o \o octal digit: [0-7] | |
| 496 |/\O| \O \O non-octal digit: [^0-7] | |
| 497 |/\w| \w \w word character: [0-9A-Za-z_] | |
| 498 |/\W| \W \W non-word character: [^0-9A-Za-z_] | |
| 499 |/\h| \h \h head of word character: [A-Za-z_] | |
| 500 |/\H| \H \H non-head of word character: [^A-Za-z_] | |
| 501 |/\a| \a \a alphabetic character: [A-Za-z] | |
| 502 |/\A| \A \A non-alphabetic character: [^A-Za-z] | |
| 503 |/\l| \l \l lowercase character: [a-z] | |
| 504 |/\L| \L \L non-lowercase character: [^a-z] | |
| 505 |/\u| \u \u uppercase character: [A-Z] | |
| 506 |/\U| \U \U non-uppercase character [^A-Z] | |
| 507 |/\_| \_x \_x where x is any of the characters above: character | |
| 508 class with end-of-line included | |
| 509 (end of character classes) | |
| 510 | |
| 511 |/\e| \e \e <Esc> | |
| 512 |/\t| \t \t <Tab> | |
| 513 |/\r| \r \r <CR> | |
| 514 |/\b| \b \b <BS> | |
| 515 |/\n| \n \n end-of-line | |
| 516 |/~| ~ \~ last given substitute string | |
| 517 |/\1| \1 \1 same string as matched by first \(\) {not in Vi} | |
| 518 |/\2| \2 \2 Like "\1", but uses second \(\) | |
| 519 ... | |
| 520 |/\9| \9 \9 Like "\1", but uses ninth \(\) | |
| 521 *E68* | |
| 522 |/\z1| \z1 \z1 only for syntax highlighting, see |:syn-ext-match| | |
| 523 ... | |
| 524 |/\z1| \z9 \z9 only for syntax highlighting, see |:syn-ext-match| | |
| 525 | |
| 526 x x a character with no special meaning matches itself | |
| 527 | |
| 528 |/[]| [] \[] any character specified inside the [] | |
| 4119 | 529 |/\%[]| \%[] \%[] a sequence of optionally matched atoms |
| 7 | 530 |
| 1620 | 531 |/\c| \c \c ignore case, do not use the 'ignorecase' option |
| 532 |/\C| \C \C match case, do not use the 'ignorecase' option | |
| 4444 | 533 |/\Z| \Z \Z ignore differences in Unicode "combining characters". |
| 534 Useful when searching voweled Hebrew or Arabic text. | |
| 535 | |
| 7 | 536 |/\m| \m \m 'magic' on for the following chars in the pattern |
| 537 |/\M| \M \M 'magic' off for the following chars in the pattern | |
| 538 |/\v| \v \v the following chars in the pattern are "very magic" | |
| 539 |/\V| \V \V the following chars in the pattern are "very nomagic" | |
| 4444 | 540 |/\%#=| \%#=1 \%#=1 select regexp engine |/zero-width| |
| 7 | 541 |
|
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542 |/\%d| \%d \%d match specified decimal character (eg \%d123) |
| 24 | 543 |/\%x| \%x \%x match specified hex character (eg \%x2a) |
| 544 |/\%o| \%o \%o match specified octal character (eg \%o040) | |
| 545 |/\%u| \%u \%u match specified multibyte character (eg \%u20ac) | |
| 546 |/\%U| \%U \%U match specified large multibyte character (eg | |
| 547 \%U12345678) | |
| 7 | 548 |
| 549 Example matches ~ | |
| 550 \<\I\i* or | |
| 551 \<\h\w* | |
| 552 \<[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]* | |
| 553 An identifier (e.g., in a C program). | |
| 554 | |
| 555 \(\.$\|\. \) A period followed by <EOL> or a space. | |
| 556 | |
| 557 [.!?][])"']*\($\|[ ]\) A search pattern that finds the end of a sentence, | |
| 558 with almost the same definition as the ")" command. | |
| 559 | |
| 560 cat\Z Both "cat" and "càt" ("a" followed by 0x0300) | |
| 561 Does not match "càt" (character 0x00e0), even | |
| 562 though it may look the same. | |
| 563 | |
| 564 | |
| 565 ============================================================================== | |
| 566 5. Multi items *pattern-multi-items* | |
| 567 | |
| 568 An atom can be followed by an indication of how many times the atom can be | |
| 569 matched and in what way. This is called a multi. See |/multi| for an | |
| 570 overview. | |
| 571 | |
| 572 */star* */\star* *E56* | |
| 573 * (use \* when 'magic' is not set) | |
| 574 Matches 0 or more of the preceding atom, as many as possible. | |
| 575 Example 'nomagic' matches ~ | |
| 576 a* a\* "", "a", "aa", "aaa", etc. | |
| 577 .* \.\* anything, also an empty string, no end-of-line | |
| 578 \_.* \_.\* everything up to the end of the buffer | |
| 579 \_.*END \_.\*END everything up to and including the last "END" | |
| 580 in the buffer | |
| 581 | |
| 582 Exception: When "*" is used at the start of the pattern or just after | |
| 583 "^" it matches the star character. | |
| 584 | |
| 585 Be aware that repeating "\_." can match a lot of text and take a long | |
| 586 time. For example, "\_.*END" matches all text from the current | |
| 587 position to the last occurrence of "END" in the file. Since the "*" | |
| 588 will match as many as possible, this first skips over all lines until | |
| 589 the end of the file and then tries matching "END", backing up one | |
| 590 character at a time. | |
| 591 | |
| 592 */\+* *E57* | |
| 593 \+ Matches 1 or more of the preceding atom, as many as possible. {not in | |
| 594 Vi} | |
| 595 Example matches ~ | |
| 596 ^.\+$ any non-empty line | |
| 597 \s\+ white space of at least one character | |
| 598 | |
| 599 */\=* | |
| 600 \= Matches 0 or 1 of the preceding atom, as many as possible. {not in Vi} | |
| 601 Example matches ~ | |
| 602 foo\= "fo" and "foo" | |
| 603 | |
| 604 */\?* | |
| 605 \? Just like \=. Cannot be used when searching backwards with the "?" | |
| 606 command. {not in Vi} | |
| 607 | |
| 4444 | 608 */\{* *E58* *E60* *E554* *E870* |
| 7 | 609 \{n,m} Matches n to m of the preceding atom, as many as possible |
| 610 \{n} Matches n of the preceding atom | |
| 611 \{n,} Matches at least n of the preceding atom, as many as possible | |
| 612 \{,m} Matches 0 to m of the preceding atom, as many as possible | |
| 613 \{} Matches 0 or more of the preceding atom, as many as possible (like *) | |
| 614 */\{-* | |
| 615 \{-n,m} matches n to m of the preceding atom, as few as possible | |
| 616 \{-n} matches n of the preceding atom | |
| 617 \{-n,} matches at least n of the preceding atom, as few as possible | |
| 618 \{-,m} matches 0 to m of the preceding atom, as few as possible | |
| 619 \{-} matches 0 or more of the preceding atom, as few as possible | |
| 620 {Vi does not have any of these} | |
| 621 | |
| 168 | 622 n and m are positive decimal numbers or zero |
| 1125 | 623 *non-greedy* |
| 7 | 624 If a "-" appears immediately after the "{", then a shortest match |
| 625 first algorithm is used (see example below). In particular, "\{-}" is | |
| 626 the same as "*" but uses the shortest match first algorithm. BUT: A | |
| 627 match that starts earlier is preferred over a shorter match: "a\{-}b" | |
| 628 matches "aaab" in "xaaab". | |
| 629 | |
| 630 Example matches ~ | |
| 631 ab\{2,3}c "abbc" or "abbbc" | |
| 1620 | 632 a\{5} "aaaaa" |
| 633 ab\{2,}c "abbc", "abbbc", "abbbbc", etc. | |
| 634 ab\{,3}c "ac", "abc", "abbc" or "abbbc" | |
| 7 | 635 a[bc]\{3}d "abbbd", "abbcd", "acbcd", "acccd", etc. |
| 636 a\(bc\)\{1,2}d "abcd" or "abcbcd" | |
| 637 a[bc]\{-}[cd] "abc" in "abcd" | |
| 638 a[bc]*[cd] "abcd" in "abcd" | |
| 639 | |
| 640 The } may optionally be preceded with a backslash: \{n,m\}. | |
| 641 | |
| 642 */\@=* | |
| 643 \@= Matches the preceding atom with zero width. {not in Vi} | |
| 644 Like "(?=pattern)" in Perl. | |
| 645 Example matches ~ | |
| 646 foo\(bar\)\@= "foo" in "foobar" | |
| 647 foo\(bar\)\@=foo nothing | |
| 648 */zero-width* | |
| 649 When using "\@=" (or "^", "$", "\<", "\>") no characters are included | |
| 650 in the match. These items are only used to check if a match can be | |
| 651 made. This can be tricky, because a match with following items will | |
| 652 be done in the same position. The last example above will not match | |
| 653 "foobarfoo", because it tries match "foo" in the same position where | |
| 654 "bar" matched. | |
| 655 | |
| 656 Note that using "\&" works the same as using "\@=": "foo\&.." is the | |
| 657 same as "\(foo\)\@=..". But using "\&" is easier, you don't need the | |
| 658 braces. | |
| 659 | |
| 660 | |
| 661 */\@!* | |
| 662 \@! Matches with zero width if the preceding atom does NOT match at the | |
| 663 current position. |/zero-width| {not in Vi} | |
| 3513 | 664 Like "(?!pattern)" in Perl. |
| 7 | 665 Example matches ~ |
| 666 foo\(bar\)\@! any "foo" not followed by "bar" | |
| 3513 | 667 a.\{-}p\@! "a", "ap", "app", "appp", etc. not immediately |
| 2908 | 668 followed by a "p" |
| 7 | 669 if \(\(then\)\@!.\)*$ "if " not followed by "then" |
| 670 | |
| 671 Using "\@!" is tricky, because there are many places where a pattern | |
| 672 does not match. "a.*p\@!" will match from an "a" to the end of the | |
| 673 line, because ".*" can match all characters in the line and the "p" | |
| 674 doesn't match at the end of the line. "a.\{-}p\@!" will match any | |
| 3513 | 675 "a", "ap", "app", etc. that isn't followed by a "p", because the "." |
| 7 | 676 can match a "p" and "p\@!" doesn't match after that. |
| 677 | |
| 678 You can't use "\@!" to look for a non-match before the matching | |
| 679 position: "\(foo\)\@!bar" will match "bar" in "foobar", because at the | |
| 680 position where "bar" matches, "foo" does not match. To avoid matching | |
| 681 "foobar" you could use "\(foo\)\@!...bar", but that doesn't match a | |
| 237 | 682 bar at the start of a line. Use "\(foo\)\@<!bar". |
| 7 | 683 |
| 2788 | 684 Useful example: to find "foo" in a line that does not contain "bar": > |
| 685 /^\%(.*bar\)\@!.*\zsfoo | |
| 686 < This pattern first checks that there is not a single position in the | |
| 687 line where "bar" matches. If ".*bar" matches somewhere the \@! will | |
| 688 reject the pattern. When there is no match any "foo" will be found. | |
| 689 The "\zs" is to have the match start just before "foo". | |
| 690 | |
| 7 | 691 */\@<=* |
| 692 \@<= Matches with zero width if the preceding atom matches just before what | |
| 693 follows. |/zero-width| {not in Vi} | |
| 3513 | 694 Like "(?<=pattern)" in Perl, but Vim allows non-fixed-width patterns. |
| 7 | 695 Example matches ~ |
| 696 \(an\_s\+\)\@<=file "file" after "an" and white space or an | |
| 697 end-of-line | |
| 698 For speed it's often much better to avoid this multi. Try using "\zs" | |
| 699 instead |/\zs|. To match the same as the above example: | |
| 700 an\_s\+\zsfile | |
| 701 | |
| 702 "\@<=" and "\@<!" check for matches just before what follows. | |
| 703 Theoretically these matches could start anywhere before this position. | |
| 704 But to limit the time needed, only the line where what follows matches | |
| 705 is searched, and one line before that (if there is one). This should | |
| 706 be sufficient to match most things and not be too slow. | |
| 707 The part of the pattern after "\@<=" and "\@<!" are checked for a | |
| 708 match first, thus things like "\1" don't work to reference \(\) inside | |
| 709 the preceding atom. It does work the other way around: | |
| 710 Example matches ~ | |
| 711 \1\@<=,\([a-z]\+\) ",abc" in "abc,abc" | |
| 712 | |
| 713 */\@<!* | |
| 714 \@<! Matches with zero width if the preceding atom does NOT match just | |
| 715 before what follows. Thus this matches if there is no position in the | |
| 716 current or previous line where the atom matches such that it ends just | |
| 717 before what follows. |/zero-width| {not in Vi} | |
| 3513 | 718 Like "(?<!pattern)" in Perl, but Vim allows non-fixed-width patterns. |
| 7 | 719 The match with the preceding atom is made to end just before the match |
| 720 with what follows, thus an atom that ends in ".*" will work. | |
| 721 Warning: This can be slow (because many positions need to be checked | |
| 722 for a match). | |
| 723 Example matches ~ | |
| 724 \(foo\)\@<!bar any "bar" that's not in "foobar" | |
| 1620 | 725 \(\/\/.*\)\@<!in "in" which is not after "//" |
| 7 | 726 |
| 727 */\@>* | |
| 728 \@> Matches the preceding atom like matching a whole pattern. {not in Vi} | |
| 1620 | 729 Like "(?>pattern)" in Perl. |
| 7 | 730 Example matches ~ |
| 731 \(a*\)\@>a nothing (the "a*" takes all the "a"'s, there can't be | |
| 732 another one following) | |
| 733 | |
| 734 This matches the preceding atom as if it was a pattern by itself. If | |
| 735 it doesn't match, there is no retry with shorter sub-matches or | |
| 736 anything. Observe this difference: "a*b" and "a*ab" both match | |
| 737 "aaab", but in the second case the "a*" matches only the first two | |
| 738 "a"s. "\(a*\)\@>ab" will not match "aaab", because the "a*" matches | |
| 739 the "aaa" (as many "a"s as possible), thus the "ab" can't match. | |
| 740 | |
| 741 | |
| 742 ============================================================================== | |
| 743 6. Ordinary atoms *pattern-atoms* | |
| 744 | |
| 745 An ordinary atom can be: | |
| 746 | |
| 747 */^* | |
| 748 ^ At beginning of pattern or after "\|", "\(", "\%(" or "\n": matches | |
| 749 start-of-line; at other positions, matches literal '^'. |/zero-width| | |
| 750 Example matches ~ | |
| 751 ^beep( the start of the C function "beep" (probably). | |
| 752 | |
| 753 */\^* | |
| 754 \^ Matches literal '^'. Can be used at any position in the pattern. | |
| 755 | |
| 756 */\_^* | |
| 757 \_^ Matches start-of-line. |/zero-width| Can be used at any position in | |
| 758 the pattern. | |
| 759 Example matches ~ | |
| 760 \_s*\_^foo white space and blank lines and then "foo" at | |
| 761 start-of-line | |
| 762 | |
| 763 */$* | |
| 1620 | 764 $ At end of pattern or in front of "\|", "\)" or "\n" ('magic' on): |
| 7 | 765 matches end-of-line <EOL>; at other positions, matches literal '$'. |
| 766 |/zero-width| | |
| 767 | |
| 768 */\$* | |
| 769 \$ Matches literal '$'. Can be used at any position in the pattern. | |
| 770 | |
| 771 */\_$* | |
| 772 \_$ Matches end-of-line. |/zero-width| Can be used at any position in the | |
| 773 pattern. Note that "a\_$b" never matches, since "b" cannot match an | |
| 774 end-of-line. Use "a\nb" instead |/\n|. | |
| 775 Example matches ~ | |
| 776 foo\_$\_s* "foo" at end-of-line and following white space and | |
| 777 blank lines | |
| 778 | |
| 779 . (with 'nomagic': \.) */.* */\.* | |
| 780 Matches any single character, but not an end-of-line. | |
| 781 | |
| 782 */\_.* | |
| 783 \_. Matches any single character or end-of-line. | |
| 784 Careful: "\_.*" matches all text to the end of the buffer! | |
| 785 | |
| 786 */\<* | |
| 787 \< Matches the beginning of a word: The next char is the first char of a | |
| 788 word. The 'iskeyword' option specifies what is a word character. | |
| 789 |/zero-width| | |
| 790 | |
| 791 */\>* | |
| 792 \> Matches the end of a word: The previous char is the last char of a | |
| 237 | 793 word. The 'iskeyword' option specifies what is a word character. |
| 7 | 794 |/zero-width| |
| 795 | |
| 796 */\zs* | |
| 797 \zs Matches at any position, and sets the start of the match there: The | |
| 798 next char is the first char of the whole match. |/zero-width| | |
| 799 Example: > | |
| 800 /^\s*\zsif | |
| 801 < matches an "if" at the start of a line, ignoring white space. | |
| 802 Can be used multiple times, the last one encountered in a matching | |
| 237 | 803 branch is used. Example: > |
| 7 | 804 /\(.\{-}\zsFab\)\{3} |
| 805 < Finds the third occurrence of "Fab". | |
|
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806 {not in Vi} {not available when compiled without the |+syntax| feature} |
| 7 | 807 */\ze* |
| 808 \ze Matches at any position, and sets the end of the match there: The | |
| 809 previous char is the last char of the whole match. |/zero-width| | |
| 810 Can be used multiple times, the last one encountered in a matching | |
| 811 branch is used. | |
| 812 Example: "end\ze\(if\|for\)" matches the "end" in "endif" and | |
| 813 "endfor". | |
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814 {not in Vi} {not available when compiled without the |+syntax| feature} |
| 7 | 815 |
| 816 */\%^* *start-of-file* | |
| 817 \%^ Matches start of the file. When matching with a string, matches the | |
| 818 start of the string. {not in Vi} | |
| 819 For example, to find the first "VIM" in a file: > | |
| 820 /\%^\_.\{-}\zsVIM | |
| 821 < | |
| 822 */\%$* *end-of-file* | |
| 823 \%$ Matches end of the file. When matching with a string, matches the | |
| 824 end of the string. {not in Vi} | |
| 825 Note that this does NOT find the last "VIM" in a file: > | |
| 826 /VIM\_.\{-}\%$ | |
| 827 < It will find the next VIM, because the part after it will always | |
| 828 match. This one will find the last "VIM" in the file: > | |
| 829 /VIM\ze\(\(VIM\)\@!\_.\)*\%$ | |
| 830 < This uses |/\@!| to ascertain that "VIM" does NOT match in any | |
| 831 position after the first "VIM". | |
| 832 Searching from the end of the file backwards is easier! | |
| 833 | |
| 640 | 834 */\%V* |
| 835 \%V Match inside the Visual area. When Visual mode has already been | |
| 836 stopped match in the area that |gv| would reselect. | |
|
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837 This is a |/zero-width| match. To make sure the whole pattern is |
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838 inside the Visual area put it at the start and end of the pattern, |
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839 e.g.: > |
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840 /\%Vfoo.*bar\%V |
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841 < Only works for the current buffer. |
| 640 | 842 |
| 7 | 843 */\%#* *cursor-position* |
| 844 \%# Matches with the cursor position. Only works when matching in a | |
| 845 buffer displayed in a window. {not in Vi} | |
| 846 WARNING: When the cursor is moved after the pattern was used, the | |
| 847 result becomes invalid. Vim doesn't automatically update the matches. | |
| 848 This is especially relevant for syntax highlighting and 'hlsearch'. | |
| 849 In other words: When the cursor moves the display isn't updated for | |
| 850 this change. An update is done for lines which are changed (the whole | |
| 851 line is updated) or when using the |CTRL-L| command (the whole screen | |
| 852 is updated). Example, to highlight the word under the cursor: > | |
| 853 /\k*\%#\k* | |
| 854 < When 'hlsearch' is set and you move the cursor around and make changes | |
| 855 this will clearly show when the match is updated or not. | |
| 856 | |
| 640 | 857 */\%'m* */\%<'m* */\%>'m* |
| 858 \%'m Matches with the position of mark m. | |
| 859 \%<'m Matches before the position of mark m. | |
| 860 \%>'m Matches after the position of mark m. | |
| 861 Example, to highlight the text from mark 's to 'e: > | |
| 862 /.\%>'s.*\%<'e.. | |
| 863 < Note that two dots are required to include mark 'e in the match. That | |
| 864 is because "\%<'e" matches at the character before the 'e mark, and | |
| 865 since it's a |/zero-width| match it doesn't include that character. | |
| 866 {not in Vi} | |
| 867 WARNING: When the mark is moved after the pattern was used, the result | |
| 868 becomes invalid. Vim doesn't automatically update the matches. | |
| 651 | 869 Similar to moving the cursor for "\%#" |/\%#|. |
| 640 | 870 |
| 7 | 871 */\%l* */\%>l* */\%<l* |
| 872 \%23l Matches in a specific line. | |
| 625 | 873 \%<23l Matches above a specific line (lower line number). |
| 874 \%>23l Matches below a specific line (higher line number). | |
| 7 | 875 These three can be used to match specific lines in a buffer. The "23" |
| 876 can be any line number. The first line is 1. {not in Vi} | |
| 877 WARNING: When inserting or deleting lines Vim does not automatically | |
| 878 update the matches. This means Syntax highlighting quickly becomes | |
| 879 wrong. | |
| 880 Example, to highlight the line where the cursor currently is: > | |
| 881 :exe '/\%' . line(".") . 'l.*' | |
| 882 < When 'hlsearch' is set and you move the cursor around and make changes | |
| 883 this will clearly show when the match is updated or not. | |
| 884 | |
| 885 */\%c* */\%>c* */\%<c* | |
| 886 \%23c Matches in a specific column. | |
| 887 \%<23c Matches before a specific column. | |
| 888 \%>23c Matches after a specific column. | |
| 889 These three can be used to match specific columns in a buffer or | |
| 890 string. The "23" can be any column number. The first column is 1. | |
| 891 Actually, the column is the byte number (thus it's not exactly right | |
| 892 for multi-byte characters). {not in Vi} | |
| 893 WARNING: When inserting or deleting text Vim does not automatically | |
| 894 update the matches. This means Syntax highlighting quickly becomes | |
| 895 wrong. | |
| 896 Example, to highlight the column where the cursor currently is: > | |
| 897 :exe '/\%' . col(".") . 'c' | |
| 898 < When 'hlsearch' is set and you move the cursor around and make changes | |
| 899 this will clearly show when the match is updated or not. | |
| 900 Example for matching a single byte in column 44: > | |
| 901 /\%>43c.\%<46c | |
| 902 < Note that "\%<46c" matches in column 45 when the "." matches a byte in | |
| 903 column 44. | |
| 904 */\%v* */\%>v* */\%<v* | |
| 905 \%23v Matches in a specific virtual column. | |
| 906 \%<23v Matches before a specific virtual column. | |
| 907 \%>23v Matches after a specific virtual column. | |
| 908 These three can be used to match specific virtual columns in a buffer | |
| 909 or string. When not matching with a buffer in a window, the option | |
| 910 values of the current window are used (e.g., 'tabstop'). | |
| 911 The "23" can be any column number. The first column is 1. | |
| 912 Note that some virtual column positions will never match, because they | |
| 1270 | 913 are halfway through a tab or other character that occupies more than |
| 914 one screen character. {not in Vi} | |
| 7 | 915 WARNING: When inserting or deleting text Vim does not automatically |
| 283 | 916 update highlighted matches. This means Syntax highlighting quickly |
| 917 becomes wrong. | |
| 1620 | 918 Example, to highlight all the characters after virtual column 72: > |
| 7 | 919 /\%>72v.* |
| 920 < When 'hlsearch' is set and you move the cursor around and make changes | |
| 921 this will clearly show when the match is updated or not. | |
| 922 To match the text up to column 17: > | |
| 923 /.*\%17v | |
|
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924 < Column 17 is included, because that's where the "\%17v" matches, |
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925 even though this is a |/zero-width| match. Adding a dot to match the |
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926 next character has the same result: > |
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927 /.*\%17v. |
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928 < This command does the same thing, but also matches when there is no |
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929 character in column 17: > |
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930 /.*\%<18v. |
| 7 | 931 < |
| 932 | |
| 933 Character classes: {not in Vi} | |
| 934 \i identifier character (see 'isident' option) */\i* | |
| 935 \I like "\i", but excluding digits */\I* | |
| 936 \k keyword character (see 'iskeyword' option) */\k* | |
| 937 \K like "\k", but excluding digits */\K* | |
| 938 \f file name character (see 'isfname' option) */\f* | |
| 939 \F like "\f", but excluding digits */\F* | |
| 940 \p printable character (see 'isprint' option) */\p* | |
| 941 \P like "\p", but excluding digits */\P* | |
| 942 | |
| 943 NOTE: the above also work for multi-byte characters. The ones below only | |
| 944 match ASCII characters, as indicated by the range. | |
| 945 | |
| 946 *whitespace* *white-space* | |
| 947 \s whitespace character: <Space> and <Tab> */\s* | |
| 948 \S non-whitespace character; opposite of \s */\S* | |
| 949 \d digit: [0-9] */\d* | |
| 950 \D non-digit: [^0-9] */\D* | |
| 951 \x hex digit: [0-9A-Fa-f] */\x* | |
| 952 \X non-hex digit: [^0-9A-Fa-f] */\X* | |
| 953 \o octal digit: [0-7] */\o* | |
| 954 \O non-octal digit: [^0-7] */\O* | |
| 955 \w word character: [0-9A-Za-z_] */\w* | |
| 956 \W non-word character: [^0-9A-Za-z_] */\W* | |
| 957 \h head of word character: [A-Za-z_] */\h* | |
| 958 \H non-head of word character: [^A-Za-z_] */\H* | |
| 959 \a alphabetic character: [A-Za-z] */\a* | |
| 960 \A non-alphabetic character: [^A-Za-z] */\A* | |
| 961 \l lowercase character: [a-z] */\l* | |
| 962 \L non-lowercase character: [^a-z] */\L* | |
| 963 \u uppercase character: [A-Z] */\u* | |
| 3224 | 964 \U non-uppercase character: [^A-Z] */\U* |
| 7 | 965 |
| 966 NOTE: Using the atom is faster than the [] form. | |
| 967 | |
| 968 NOTE: 'ignorecase', "\c" and "\C" are not used by character classes. | |
| 969 | |
| 970 */\_* *E63* */\_i* */\_I* */\_k* */\_K* */\_f* */\_F* | |
| 971 */\_p* */\_P* */\_s* */\_S* */\_d* */\_D* */\_x* */\_X* | |
| 972 */\_o* */\_O* */\_w* */\_W* */\_h* */\_H* */\_a* */\_A* | |
| 973 */\_l* */\_L* */\_u* */\_U* | |
| 974 \_x Where "x" is any of the characters above: The character class with | |
| 975 end-of-line added | |
| 976 (end of character classes) | |
| 977 | |
| 978 \e matches <Esc> */\e* | |
| 979 \t matches <Tab> */\t* | |
| 980 \r matches <CR> */\r* | |
| 981 \b matches <BS> */\b* | |
| 982 \n matches an end-of-line */\n* | |
| 983 When matching in a string instead of buffer text a literal newline | |
| 984 character is matched. | |
| 985 | |
| 986 ~ matches the last given substitute string */~* */\~* | |
| 987 | |
| 988 \(\) A pattern enclosed by escaped parentheses. */\(* */\(\)* */\)* | |
| 4444 | 989 E.g., "\(^a\)" matches 'a' at the start of a line. |
| 990 *E51* *E54* *E55* *E872* *E873* | |
| 7 | 991 |
| 992 \1 Matches the same string that was matched by */\1* *E65* | |
| 993 the first sub-expression in \( and \). {not in Vi} | |
| 994 Example: "\([a-z]\).\1" matches "ata", "ehe", "tot", etc. | |
| 995 \2 Like "\1", but uses second sub-expression, */\2* | |
| 996 ... */\3* | |
| 997 \9 Like "\1", but uses ninth sub-expression. */\9* | |
| 998 Note: The numbering of groups is done based on which "\(" comes first | |
| 999 in the pattern (going left to right), NOT based on what is matched | |
| 1000 first. | |
| 1001 | |
| 1002 \%(\) A pattern enclosed by escaped parentheses. */\%(\)* */\%(* *E53* | |
| 1003 Just like \(\), but without counting it as a sub-expression. This | |
| 1004 allows using more groups and it's a little bit faster. | |
| 1005 {not in Vi} | |
| 1006 | |
| 1007 x A single character, with no special meaning, matches itself | |
| 1008 | |
| 1009 */\* */\\* | |
| 1010 \x A backslash followed by a single character, with no special meaning, | |
| 1011 is reserved for future expansions | |
| 1012 | |
| 1013 [] (with 'nomagic': \[]) */[]* */\[]* */\_[]* */collection* | |
| 1014 \_[] | |
| 237 | 1015 A collection. This is a sequence of characters enclosed in brackets. |
| 7 | 1016 It matches any single character in the collection. |
| 1017 Example matches ~ | |
| 1018 [xyz] any 'x', 'y' or 'z' | |
| 1019 [a-zA-Z]$ any alphabetic character at the end of a line | |
| 1020 \c[a-z]$ same | |
| 4073 | 1021 [А-яЁё] Russian alphabet (with utf-8 and cp1251) |
| 1022 | |
| 1125 | 1023 */[\n]* |
| 7 | 1024 With "\_" prepended the collection also includes the end-of-line. |
| 1025 The same can be done by including "\n" in the collection. The | |
| 1026 end-of-line is also matched when the collection starts with "^"! Thus | |
| 1027 "\_[^ab]" matches the end-of-line and any character but "a" and "b". | |
| 1028 This makes it Vi compatible: Without the "\_" or "\n" the collection | |
| 1029 does not match an end-of-line. | |
| 484 | 1030 *E769* |
| 481 | 1031 When the ']' is not there Vim will not give an error message but |
| 484 | 1032 assume no collection is used. Useful to search for '['. However, you |
| 1033 do get E769 for internal searching. | |
| 481 | 1034 |
| 7 | 1035 If the sequence begins with "^", it matches any single character NOT |
| 1036 in the collection: "[^xyz]" matches anything but 'x', 'y' and 'z'. | |
| 1037 - If two characters in the sequence are separated by '-', this is | |
| 1038 shorthand for the full list of ASCII characters between them. E.g., | |
|
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1039 "[0-9]" matches any decimal digit. Non-ASCII characters can be |
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1040 used, but the character values must not be more than 256 apart. |
| 7 | 1041 - A character class expression is evaluated to the set of characters |
| 1042 belonging to that character class. The following character classes | |
| 1043 are supported: | |
| 1044 Name Contents ~ | |
| 1045 *[:alnum:]* [:alnum:] letters and digits | |
| 1046 *[:alpha:]* [:alpha:] letters | |
| 1047 *[:blank:]* [:blank:] space and tab characters | |
| 1048 *[:cntrl:]* [:cntrl:] control characters | |
| 1049 *[:digit:]* [:digit:] decimal digits | |
| 1050 *[:graph:]* [:graph:] printable characters excluding space | |
| 1051 *[:lower:]* [:lower:] lowercase letters (all letters when | |
| 1052 'ignorecase' is used) | |
| 1053 *[:print:]* [:print:] printable characters including space | |
| 1054 *[:punct:]* [:punct:] punctuation characters | |
| 1055 *[:space:]* [:space:] whitespace characters | |
| 1056 *[:upper:]* [:upper:] uppercase letters (all letters when | |
| 1057 'ignorecase' is used) | |
| 1058 *[:xdigit:]* [:xdigit:] hexadecimal digits | |
| 1059 *[:return:]* [:return:] the <CR> character | |
| 1060 *[:tab:]* [:tab:] the <Tab> character | |
| 1061 *[:escape:]* [:escape:] the <Esc> character | |
| 1062 *[:backspace:]* [:backspace:] the <BS> character | |
| 1063 The brackets in character class expressions are additional to the | |
| 1064 brackets delimiting a collection. For example, the following is a | |
| 1065 plausible pattern for a UNIX filename: "[-./[:alnum:]_~]\+" That is, | |
| 1066 a list of at least one character, each of which is either '-', '.', | |
| 1067 '/', alphabetic, numeric, '_' or '~'. | |
| 1068 These items only work for 8-bit characters. | |
| 168 | 1069 */[[=* *[==]* |
| 1070 - An equivalence class. This means that characters are matched that | |
| 2974 | 1071 have almost the same meaning, e.g., when ignoring accents. This |
| 1072 only works for Unicode, latin1 and latin9. The form is: | |
| 856 | 1073 [=a=] |
| 168 | 1074 */[[.* *[..]* |
| 1075 - A collation element. This currently simply accepts a single | |
| 1076 character in the form: | |
| 856 | 1077 [.a.] |
| 7 | 1078 */\]* |
| 1079 - To include a literal ']', '^', '-' or '\' in the collection, put a | |
| 1080 backslash before it: "[xyz\]]", "[\^xyz]", "[xy\-z]" and "[xyz\\]". | |
| 1081 (Note: POSIX does not support the use of a backslash this way). For | |
| 1082 ']' you can also make it the first character (following a possible | |
| 1083 "^"): "[]xyz]" or "[^]xyz]" {not in Vi}. | |
| 1084 For '-' you can also make it the first or last character: "[-xyz]", | |
| 1085 "[^-xyz]" or "[xyz-]". For '\' you can also let it be followed by | |
|
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1086 any character that's not in "^]-\bdertnoUux". "[\xyz]" matches '\', |
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1087 'x', 'y' and 'z'. It's better to use "\\" though, future expansions |
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|
1088 may use other characters after '\'. |
| 4339 | 1089 - Omitting the trailing ] is not considered an error. "[]" works like |
| 1090 "[]]", it matches the ']' character. | |
| 7 | 1091 - The following translations are accepted when the 'l' flag is not |
| 1092 included in 'cpoptions' {not in Vi}: | |
| 1093 \e <Esc> | |
| 1094 \t <Tab> | |
| 1095 \r <CR> (NOT end-of-line!) | |
| 1096 \b <BS> | |
| 1125 | 1097 \n line break, see above |/[\n]| |
| 24 | 1098 \d123 decimal number of character |
| 1099 \o40 octal number of character up to 0377 | |
| 1100 \x20 hexadecimal number of character up to 0xff | |
| 1101 \u20AC hex. number of multibyte character up to 0xffff | |
| 1102 \U1234 hex. number of multibyte character up to 0xffffffff | |
| 7 | 1103 NOTE: The other backslash codes mentioned above do not work inside |
| 1104 []! | |
| 1105 - Matching with a collection can be slow, because each character in | |
| 1106 the text has to be compared with each character in the collection. | |
| 1107 Use one of the other atoms above when possible. Example: "\d" is | |
| 1108 much faster than "[0-9]" and matches the same characters. | |
| 1109 | |
| 1110 */\%[]* *E69* *E70* *E369* | |
| 24 | 1111 \%[] A sequence of optionally matched atoms. This always matches. |
| 7 | 1112 It matches as much of the list of atoms it contains as possible. Thus |
| 1113 it stops at the first atom that doesn't match. For example: > | |
| 1114 /r\%[ead] | |
| 1115 < matches "r", "re", "rea" or "read". The longest that matches is used. | |
| 1116 To match the Ex command "function", where "fu" is required and | |
| 1117 "nction" is optional, this would work: > | |
| 1118 /\<fu\%[nction]\> | |
| 1119 < The end-of-word atom "\>" is used to avoid matching "fu" in "full". | |
| 1120 It gets more complicated when the atoms are not ordinary characters. | |
| 1121 You don't often have to use it, but it is possible. Example: > | |
| 1122 /\<r\%[[eo]ad]\> | |
| 1123 < Matches the words "r", "re", "ro", "rea", "roa", "read" and "road". | |
| 1125 | 1124 There can be no \(\), \%(\) or \z(\) items inside the [] and \%[] does |
| 1125 not nest. | |
| 1620 | 1126 To include a "[" use "[[]" and for "]" use []]", e.g.,: > |
| 1127 /index\%[[[]0[]]] | |
| 1128 < matches "index" "index[", "index[0" and "index[0]". | |
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1129 {not available when compiled without the |+syntax| feature} |
| 7 | 1130 |
| 140 | 1131 */\%d* */\%x* */\%o* */\%u* */\%U* *E678* |
| 24 | 1132 |
| 1133 \%d123 Matches the character specified with a decimal number. Must be | |
| 1134 followed by a non-digit. | |
| 1135 \%o40 Matches the character specified with an octal number up to 0377. | |
| 1136 Numbers below 040 must be followed by a non-octal digit or a non-digit. | |
| 1137 \%x2a Matches the character specified with up to two hexadecimal characters. | |
| 1138 \%u20AC Matches the character specified with up to four hexadecimal | |
| 1139 characters. | |
| 1140 \%U1234abcd Matches the character specified with up to eight hexadecimal | |
| 1141 characters. | |
| 7 | 1142 |
| 1143 ============================================================================== | |
| 1144 7. Ignoring case in a pattern */ignorecase* | |
| 1145 | |
| 1146 If the 'ignorecase' option is on, the case of normal letters is ignored. | |
| 1147 'smartcase' can be set to ignore case when the pattern contains lowercase | |
| 1148 letters only. | |
| 1149 */\c* */\C* | |
| 1150 When "\c" appears anywhere in the pattern, the whole pattern is handled like | |
| 1151 'ignorecase' is on. The actual value of 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' is | |
| 1152 ignored. "\C" does the opposite: Force matching case for the whole pattern. | |
| 1153 {only Vim supports \c and \C} | |
| 1154 Note that 'ignorecase', "\c" and "\C" are not used for the character classes. | |
| 1155 | |
| 1156 Examples: | |
| 1157 pattern 'ignorecase' 'smartcase' matches ~ | |
| 1158 foo off - foo | |
| 1159 foo on - foo Foo FOO | |
| 1160 Foo on off foo Foo FOO | |
| 1161 Foo on on Foo | |
| 1162 \cfoo - - foo Foo FOO | |
| 1163 foo\C - - foo | |
| 1164 | |
| 1165 Technical detail: *NL-used-for-Nul* | |
| 1166 <Nul> characters in the file are stored as <NL> in memory. In the display | |
| 1167 they are shown as "^@". The translation is done when reading and writing | |
| 1168 files. To match a <Nul> with a search pattern you can just enter CTRL-@ or | |
| 1169 "CTRL-V 000". This is probably just what you expect. Internally the | |
| 1170 character is replaced with a <NL> in the search pattern. What is unusual is | |
| 1171 that typing CTRL-V CTRL-J also inserts a <NL>, thus also searches for a <Nul> | |
| 1172 in the file. {Vi cannot handle <Nul> characters in the file at all} | |
| 1173 | |
| 1174 *CR-used-for-NL* | |
| 1175 When 'fileformat' is "mac", <NL> characters in the file are stored as <CR> | |
| 1698 | 1176 characters internally. In the text they are shown as "^J". Otherwise this |
| 7 | 1177 works similar to the usage of <NL> for a <Nul>. |
| 1178 | |
| 1179 When working with expression evaluation, a <NL> character in the pattern | |
| 1180 matches a <NL> in the string. The use of "\n" (backslash n) to match a <NL> | |
| 1181 doesn't work there, it only works to match text in the buffer. | |
| 1182 | |
| 1183 *pattern-multi-byte* | |
| 1184 Patterns will also work with multi-byte characters, mostly as you would | |
| 1185 expect. But invalid bytes may cause trouble, a pattern with an invalid byte | |
| 1186 will probably never match. | |
| 1187 | |
| 1188 ============================================================================== | |
| 714 | 1189 8. Composing characters *patterns-composing* |
| 1190 | |
| 1191 */\Z* | |
| 1192 When "\Z" appears anywhere in the pattern, composing characters are ignored. | |
| 1193 Thus only the base characters need to match, the composing characters may be | |
| 1194 different and the number of composing characters may differ. Only relevant | |
| 1195 when 'encoding' is "utf-8". | |
| 1196 | |
| 1197 When a composing character appears at the start of the pattern of after an | |
| 1198 item that doesn't include the composing character, a match is found at any | |
| 1199 character that includes this composing character. | |
| 1200 | |
| 1201 When using a dot and a composing character, this works the same as the | |
| 1202 composing character by itself, except that it doesn't matter what comes before | |
| 1203 this. | |
| 1204 | |
| 1205 The order of composing characters matters, even though changing the order | |
| 1125 | 1206 doesn't change what a character looks like. This may change in the future. |
| 714 | 1207 |
| 1208 ============================================================================== | |
| 1209 9. Compare with Perl patterns *perl-patterns* | |
| 7 | 1210 |
| 1211 Vim's regexes are most similar to Perl's, in terms of what you can do. The | |
| 1212 difference between them is mostly just notation; here's a summary of where | |
| 1213 they differ: | |
| 1214 | |
| 1215 Capability in Vimspeak in Perlspeak ~ | |
| 1216 ---------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| 1217 force case insensitivity \c (?i) | |
| 1218 force case sensitivity \C (?-i) | |
| 714 | 1219 backref-less grouping \%(atom\) (?:atom) |
| 7 | 1220 conservative quantifiers \{-n,m} *?, +?, ??, {}? |
| 1221 0-width match atom\@= (?=atom) | |
| 1222 0-width non-match atom\@! (?!atom) | |
| 1223 0-width preceding match atom\@<= (?<=atom) | |
| 1224 0-width preceding non-match atom\@<! (?<!atom) | |
| 1225 match without retry atom\@> (?>atom) | |
| 1226 | |
| 1227 Vim and Perl handle newline characters inside a string a bit differently: | |
| 1228 | |
| 1229 In Perl, ^ and $ only match at the very beginning and end of the text, | |
| 1230 by default, but you can set the 'm' flag, which lets them match at | |
| 1231 embedded newlines as well. You can also set the 's' flag, which causes | |
| 1232 a . to match newlines as well. (Both these flags can be changed inside | |
| 1233 a pattern using the same syntax used for the i flag above, BTW.) | |
| 1234 | |
| 1235 On the other hand, Vim's ^ and $ always match at embedded newlines, and | |
| 1236 you get two separate atoms, \%^ and \%$, which only match at the very | |
| 1237 start and end of the text, respectively. Vim solves the second problem | |
| 1238 by giving you the \_ "modifier": put it in front of a . or a character | |
| 1239 class, and they will match newlines as well. | |
| 1240 | |
| 1241 Finally, these constructs are unique to Perl: | |
| 1242 - execution of arbitrary code in the regex: (?{perl code}) | |
| 1243 - conditional expressions: (?(condition)true-expr|false-expr) | |
| 1244 | |
| 1245 ...and these are unique to Vim: | |
| 1246 - changing the magic-ness of a pattern: \v \V \m \M | |
| 1247 (very useful for avoiding backslashitis) | |
| 1248 - sequence of optionally matching atoms: \%[atoms] | |
| 1249 - \& (which is to \| what "and" is to "or"; it forces several branches | |
| 1250 to match at one spot) | |
| 1251 - matching lines/columns by number: \%5l \%5c \%5v | |
| 714 | 1252 - setting the start and end of the match: \zs \ze |
| 7 | 1253 |
| 1254 ============================================================================== | |
| 714 | 1255 10. Highlighting matches *match-highlight* |
| 7 | 1256 |
| 1257 *:mat* *:match* | |
| 1258 :mat[ch] {group} /{pattern}/ | |
| 1259 Define a pattern to highlight in the current window. It will | |
| 1260 be highlighted with {group}. Example: > | |
| 1261 :highlight MyGroup ctermbg=green guibg=green | |
| 1262 :match MyGroup /TODO/ | |
| 1263 < Instead of // any character can be used to mark the start and | |
| 1264 end of the {pattern}. Watch out for using special characters, | |
| 1265 such as '"' and '|'. | |
| 699 | 1266 |
| 7 | 1267 {group} must exist at the moment this command is executed. |
| 699 | 1268 |
| 1269 The {group} highlighting still applies when a character is | |
| 1326 | 1270 to be highlighted for 'hlsearch', as the highlighting for |
| 1271 matches is given higher priority than that of 'hlsearch'. | |
| 1272 Syntax highlighting (see 'syntax') is also overruled by | |
| 1273 matches. | |
| 699 | 1274 |
| 7 | 1275 Note that highlighting the last used search pattern with |
| 1276 'hlsearch' is used in all windows, while the pattern defined | |
| 1277 with ":match" only exists in the current window. It is kept | |
| 1278 when switching to another buffer. | |
| 699 | 1279 |
| 1280 'ignorecase' does not apply, use |/\c| in the pattern to | |
| 1281 ignore case. Otherwise case is not ignored. | |
| 1282 | |
| 1620 | 1283 'redrawtime' defines the maximum time searched for pattern |
| 1284 matches. | |
| 1285 | |
| 1125 | 1286 When matching end-of-line and Vim redraws only part of the |
| 1287 display you may get unexpected results. That is because Vim | |
| 1288 looks for a match in the line where redrawing starts. | |
| 1289 | |
| 1620 | 1290 Also see |matcharg()| and |getmatches()|. The former returns |
| 1326 | 1291 the highlight group and pattern of a previous |:match| |
| 1292 command. The latter returns a list with highlight groups and | |
| 1293 patterns defined by both |matchadd()| and |:match|. | |
| 1294 | |
| 1295 Highlighting matches using |:match| are limited to three | |
| 1296 matches (aside from |:match|, |:2match| and |:3match|are | |
| 1297 available). |matchadd()| does not have this limitation and in | |
| 1298 addition makes it possible to prioritize matches. | |
| 819 | 1299 |
| 7 | 1300 Another example, which highlights all characters in virtual |
| 1301 column 72 and more: > | |
| 1302 :highlight rightMargin term=bold ctermfg=blue guifg=blue | |
| 1303 :match rightMargin /.\%>72v/ | |
| 1304 < To highlight all character that are in virtual column 7: > | |
| 1305 :highlight col8 ctermbg=grey guibg=grey | |
| 1306 :match col8 /\%<8v.\%>7v/ | |
| 1307 < Note the use of two items to also match a character that | |
| 1308 occupies more than one virtual column, such as a TAB. | |
| 1309 | |
| 1310 :mat[ch] | |
| 1311 :mat[ch] none | |
| 1312 Clear a previously defined match pattern. | |
| 1313 | |
| 699 | 1314 |
| 819 | 1315 :2mat[ch] {group} /{pattern}/ *:2match* |
| 699 | 1316 :2mat[ch] |
| 1317 :2mat[ch] none | |
| 819 | 1318 :3mat[ch] {group} /{pattern}/ *:3match* |
| 699 | 1319 :3mat[ch] |
| 1320 :3mat[ch] none | |
| 1321 Just like |:match| above, but set a separate match. Thus | |
| 1322 there can be three matches active at the same time. The match | |
| 1323 with the lowest number has priority if several match at the | |
| 1324 same position. | |
| 1325 The ":3match" command is used by the |matchparen| plugin. You | |
| 1326 are suggested to use ":match" for manual matching and | |
| 1327 ":2match" for another plugin. | |
| 1328 | |
| 1329 | |
| 7 | 1330 vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: |