How to Search a Text in VIM

Hello ! friends, So in today's notes we will talk about how we can search a string in VIM or Vi editor. Well! so lets start without wasting the time -

Vim/Vi is a powerful open -source command-line text editor. It is highly configurable with an extensive manual and ships with a wealth of features, including syntax highlighting and color codes, comprehensive plugin support, and search and replace, to mention a few.

Searching text or a string by manually scrolling up and down can be a very tedious task. Fortunately, the vim editor has a faster and convenient way of doing this.

Mode provided by VIM

Basically , Vim provided three main modes  Command mode, Insert mode and Visual mode.

The Command mode :

By default, the Vim editor is first launched in command mode. In this mode, key-presses are inactive, and a user cannot insert text or modify the file. However, you can navigate up and down, left and right, using the following keys:

k – Moves up one row. (Equivalent of Arrow up key )

j – Moves down one row. (Equivalent of Arrow down key )

l – Navigates one character to the right or moves forwards. (Equivalent of Arrow right key)

h – Navigates one character to the left or moves backward. (Equivalent of Arrow down key )

You can also prefix the keys with a numeric letter to move up or down a certain number of rows or move forward and backward a certain number of characters. For example,

6k – moves up 6 rows

4j – Moves down 4 rows

The Insert mode :

This mode allows you to type in text and make changes to a text file as you deem fit. The insert mode can be accessed from the command mode by pressing the following keys.

The ‘i’ key ( insert ) allows you to insert a character at the cursor’s current position.

The ‘a’ key ( append ) – This moves the cursor one character to the right and gets you to insert mode.

The ‘o’ key – This creates a new line below the current row and switches to insert mode.

The Visual mode :

The visual mode is usually used to highlight text, similar to clicking and dragging with a mouse. To start making a text selection, simply type ‘v’ then leverage the arrow keys to highlight text.

Perform basic search operation in vim

To search text, you need to be in command mode. If you are in insert mode, simply press the ‘ESC’ key.

To perform a basic search of the string or text that you want, move to the beginning of the file and simply press the forward-slash ( / ) key. Then type the search string and press ENTER on the keyboard to start searching.

The forward-slash ( / ) key performs a forward search. It searches for the string or pattern from the current cursor position right up to the end of the file. To search for the next pattern, simply press the letter n on the keyboard.

To search backward, press the question mark symbol ( ? ), type the search string, and press ENTER on the keyboard. This searches the string from the current cursor position to the start of the file.

Search a complete word

To search for a complete word, begin by pressing the / or? Symbol. After that, type the \< symbol to mark the beginning of the word to be searched then /> to signify the end of the search word. Then finally, hit ENTER to commence the search.