Vim Substitution Feedback Using vim-over

February 29, 2016

1 min read

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It is common while in vim to perform substitution tasks over the text you are editing. This is often accomplished using the following command:

:%s/<find>/<replacement>/g

The %s command will perform substitution over every line within the buffer. The /<find>/<replace> specifies the substitution to perform. Finally the /g indicates that this should apply to multiple occurrences if they are present on the same line.

This works great, although there is little affordance in determining whether the specified <find> will hit the matches you are interested in. The aforementioned command is a all-or-nothing with respect to execution, there is no visual feedback until you execute the command.

Visual Feedback via vim-over

The vim-over plugin provides a dynamic approach for visual feedback while performing substitutions. It is extremely useful while crafting specific <find> patterns.

Visual Feedback Demo

Tips and Tricks

I have three vim maps that I use to simplify and enhance my substitutions.

#1 - Substitute Word

This mapping (<leader>s) will find and replace the text under the cursor using vim-over for visual feedback. After the mapping has been executed you are left where you simply type the <replacement>/g.

nnoremap <leader>s :OverCommandLine<CR> %s/<C-r><C-w>/

#2 - Global Substitution

This mapping (<leader>v) will perform a global substitution using vim-over for visual feedback. After the mapping has been executed you are left where you type the <find>/<replacement>/g.

function! VisualFindAndReplace()
    :OverCommandLine %s/
    :noh
endfunction
nnoremap <Leader>v :call VisualFindAndReplace()<CR>

#3 - Visual Substitution

This mapping (<leader>v while in visual mode) will perform a substitution only within the visually selected text using vim-over for visual feedback. After the mapping has been executed you are left where you type the <find>/<replacement>/g.

function! VisualFindAndReplaceWithSelection() range
    :'<,'>OverCommandLine s/
    :noh
endfunction
xnoremap <Leader>v :call VisualFindAndReplaceWithSelection()<CR>