# Searching in Vim

You can search for the word under the cursor using * and # in the forward and reverse directions, respectively. This is synonymous with pressing / and then the word, flanked by \< and \> (which are word boundaries).

# Special chars

Other valid special characters are available:

\< - represents the beginning of a word
\> - represents the end of a word
\w - word character
\+ - one or more
\s - space or tab
\_s - space, tab or newline
\(...\) - search group
\| - or

# Add modes after search query

Vim also allows special chars that specify modes:

/e - positions the cursor after the query instead of at start
\c - forces case-insensitive
\C - forces case-SENSITIVE

# Options

The options most relevant to searching are:

:set incsearch - move the cursor to the matched string as you type
:set hlsearch - highlight all search matches, to temporarily disable for current search :noh