Basic search and replaceEdit The :substitute command searches for a text pattern, and replaces it with a text string. There are many options, but these are what you probably want: :%s/foo/bar/g Find each occurrence of 'foo', and replace it with 'bar'. :%s/foo/bar/gc Change each 'foo' to 'bar', but ask for confirmation first. :%s/\/bar/gc Change only whole words exactly matching 'foo' to 'bar'; ask for confirmation. :%s/foo/bar/gci Change each 'foo' (case insensitive) to 'bar'; ask for confirmation. :%s/foo/bar/gcI Change each 'foo' (case sensitive) to 'bar'; ask for confirmation. The g flag means global ? each occurrence in the line is changed, rather than just the first. DetailsEdit Search range: :s/foo/bar/g Change each 'foo' to 'bar' in the current line. :%s/foo/bar/g Change each 'foo' to 'bar' in all lines. :5,12s/foo/bar/g Change each 'foo' to 'bar' for all lines from line 5 to line 12 inclusive. :'a,'bs/foo/bar/g Change each 'foo' to 'bar' for all lines from mark a to mark b inclusive. :.,$s/foo/bar/g Change each 'foo' to 'bar' for all lines from the current line (.) to the last line ($) inclusive. :.,+2s/foo/bar/g Change each 'foo' to 'bar' for the current line (.) and the two next lines (+2). :%s/foo/bar/g Equivalent to :1,$s/foo/bar/g (change all lines). :g/^baz/s/foo/bar/g Change each 'foo' to 'bar' in each line starting with 'baz'. When searching: ., *, \, [, ], ^, and $ are metacharacters. +, ?, |, {, }, (, and ) must be escaped to use their special function. \/ is / (use backslash + forward slash to search for forward slash) \t is tab, \s is whitespace \n is newline, \r is CR (carriage return = Ctrl-M = ^M) \{#\} is used for repetition. /foo.\{2\} will match foo and the two following characters. The \ is not required on the closing } so /foo.\{2} will do the same thing. \(foo\) makes a backreference to foo. Parenthesis without escapes are literally matched. Here the \ is required for the closing \). When replacing: \r is newline, \n is a null byte (0x00). \& is ampersand (& is the text that matches the search pattern). \1 inserts the text of the first backreference. \2 inserts the second backreference, and so on. You can use other delimiters with substitute: :s#http://www.example.com/index.html#http://example.com/# Save typing by using \zs and \ze to set the start and end of a pattern. For example, instead of: :s/Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved/Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved/ Use: :s/Copyright \zs2007\ze All Rights Reserved/2008/ Using the current word or registersEdit :%s//bar/g Replace each match of the last search pattern with 'bar'. For example, you might first place the cursor on the word foo then press * to search for that word. The above substitute would then change all words exactly matching 'foo' to 'bar'. :%s/foo//g Replace each occurrence of 'foo' with the word under the cursor. means that you press Ctrl-R then Ctrl-W. The word under the cursor will be inserted as though you typed it. :%s/foo//g Replace each occurrence of 'foo' with the WORD under the cursor (delimited by whitespace). means that you press Ctrl-R then Ctrl-A. The WORD under the cursor will be inserted as though you typed it. :%s/foo/a/g Replace each occurrence of 'foo' with the contents of register 'a'. a means that you press Ctrl-R then a. The contents of register 'a' will be inserted as though you typed it. :%s/foo/\=@a/g Replace each occurrence of 'foo' with the contents of register 'a'. \=@a is a reference to register 'a'. The contents of register 'a' is not shown in the command. This is useful if the register contains many lines of text. :%s////g Replace each match of the last search pattern with the / register (the last search pattern). After pressing Ctrl-R then / to insert the last search pattern (and before pressing Enter to perform the command), you could edit the text to make any required change. :%s/*/bar/g Replace all occurrences of the text in the system clipboard (in the * register) with 'bar' (see next example if multiline). On some systems, selecting text (in Vim or another application) is all that is required to place that text in the * register. :%s/a/bar/g Replace all occurrences of the text in register 'a' with 'bar'. a means that you press Ctrl-R then a. The contents of register 'a' will be inserted as though you typed it. Any newlines in register 'a' are inserted as ^M and are not found. The search works if each ^M is manually replaced with '\n' (two characters: backslash, 'n'). This replacement can be performed while you type the command: :%s/=substitute(@a,"\n",'\\n','g')/bar/g The "\n" (double quotes) represents the single character newline; the '\\n' (single quotes) represents two backslashes followed by 'n'. The substitute() function is evaluated by the = (Ctrl-R =) expression register; it replaces each newline with a single backslash followed by 'n'. The indicates that you press Enter to finish the = expression. See Paste registers in search or colon commands instead of using the clipboard. Additional examplesEdit :%s/foo/bar/ On each line, replace the first occurrence of "foo" with "bar". :%s/.*\zsfoo/bar/ On each line, replace the last occurrence of "foo" with "bar". :%s/\.*// On each line, delete the whole word "foo" and all following text (to end of line). :%s/\.\{5}// On each line, delete the whole word "foo" and the following five characters. :%s/\\zs.*// On each line, delete all text following the whole word "foo" (to end of line). :%s/.*\// On each line, delete the whole word "foo" and all preceding text (from beginning of line). :%s/.*\ze\// On each line, delete all the text preceding the whole word "foo" (from beginning of line). :%s/.*\(\\).*/\1/ On each line, delete all the text preceding and following the whole word "foo". Special casesEdit For substituting patterns with a corresponding case-sensitive text, Michael Geddes's keepcase plugin can be used, e.g.: :%SubstituteCase/\cHello/goodBye/g Substitute 'Hello hello helLo HELLO' by 'Goodbye goodbye goodBye GOODBYE' For changing the offsets in a patch file (line number of a block), this little snippet can be used: s/^@@ -\(\d\+\),\(\d\+\) +\(\d\+\),\(\d\+\) @@$/\="@@ -".eval(submatch(1)+offsetdiff).",".submatch(2)." +".eval(submatch(3)+offsetdiff).",".submatch(4)." @@"/g Useful when we want to strip some blocks from a patch, without patch having to complain about offset differences. Note Should try to make the expression more compact, but don't know how without having the possibility of modifying unwanted lines.