In vim, how do I go back to where I was before a search?

Question

Programming in vim I often go search for something, yank it, then go back to where I was, insert it, modify it.

The problem is that after I search and find, I need to MANUALLY find my way back to where I was.

Is there an automatic way to go back to where I was when I initiated my last search?

possible duplicate of [Move cursor to its last position](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5052079/move-cursor-to-its-last-position) — Simone Carletti, Sep 19 '15 at 09:09

Agnel Kurian · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-02T09:07:43.427

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Ctrl+O takes me to the previous location. Don't know about location before the search.

Edit: Also, `. will take you to the last change you made.

edited Aug 02 '11 at 09:07

answered Sep 10 '08 at 12:47

Agnel Kurian

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It also appears that pressing CTRL+O enough times will also start taking you back through previously opened files. – Mark Biek Sep 10 '08 at 12:50
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Ctrl+O is my preferred method also. I use it constantly and wish other editors replicated its behavior. – amrox Sep 10 '08 at 12:59
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Yes, CTRL-O and CTRL-I seem to take you back and forth where you've been, nice. – Edward Tanguay Sep 10 '08 at 13:04
With CTags, Ctrl+T will take you back... don't know how it is different from Ctrl+O. – Agnel Kurian Sep 10 '08 at 13:08
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Ctrl+T will only take you back if you got there using a tag. If you searched it without using tags Ctrl+T will take you back to the place you were before you searched for your last *tag* – Nathan Fellman Sep 13 '08 at 17:26
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I've found that if I jump vía `:70` and then `:100`, pressing `ctrl+o` once goes back to the original location, *not* line 70. :( – WhyNotHugo May 04 '15 at 11:56
@Hugo read `:h up-down-motions`, where it states about `:[range]` that “in contrast with G this command does not modify the jumplist.” – Amir Oct 07 '15 at 08:23

score 101 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 06 '17 at 04:40

101

Use `` to jump back to the exact position you were in before you searched/jumped, or '' to jump back to the start of the line you were on before you searched/jumped.

edited Jan 06 '17 at 04:40

Christian Stewart

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answered Sep 17 '08 at 14:55

Max Cantor

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Only sees to work if you are on the first match, `n`-ing to subsequent matches means you do not jump back to where you started. – Kris Mar 13 '14 at 15:37
What if you searched and made a change? – Costa Michailidis Jan 02 '15 at 15:29
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You can also use `g;` and `g,`, it goes to the position of the previous/next change. – goetz Nov 29 '18 at 21:46

score 48 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 21 '19 at 06:41

48

I've always done by it setting a mark.

In command-mode, press m[letter]. For example, ma sets a mark at the current line using a as the mark identifier.
To get back to the mark press ' [letter]. For example, 'a takes you back to the line mark set in step 1. To get back to the column position of the row where you marked the line, use `a (back-tick [letter]).

To see all of the marks that currently set, type :marks.

On a slightly unrelated note, I just discovered another nifty thing about marks.

Let's say you jump to mark b by doing mb. Vim automatically sets the mark ' (that's a single-quote) to be whichever line you were on before jumping to mark b.

That means you can do 'b to jump to that mark, then do '' (2 single-quotes) to jump back to wherever you were before.

I discovered this accidentally using the :marks command, which shows a list of all marks.

edited Sep 21 '19 at 06:41

Mark Stewart

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answered Sep 10 '08 at 12:46

Mark Biek

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luckily a mark is often unnecessary since vim keeps special track of some positions and gives you access to them with ``, ^O, etc. – aehlke Apr 14 '11 at 03:19
the mark only seems to take me to the beginning of the line on which it was set. ): – john-jones Apr 18 '15 at 09:39
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@HermannIngjaldsson You may have figured this out by now, but while using ' will take you to the marked line, ` will take you to the exact location. – azmr Feb 11 '16 at 16:11

André · Answer 4 · 2010-02-17T12:58:30.223

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You really should read :help jumplist it explains all of this very well.

edited Feb 17 '10 at 12:58

answered Sep 26 '08 at 11:46

André

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I like this answer the best, there's a LOT of info in :help that most people don't know about (and I didn't until recently) – Christian Stewart Jan 06 '17 at 04:40
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What a great read! This is super helpful. and to cycle through places you've recently been. Works across buffers by default : ) – Costa Michailidis May 09 '20 at 18:28

score 38 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 03 '12 at 13:00

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CTRL+O and CTRL+I, for jumping back and forward.

edited Oct 03 '12 at 13:00

none

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answered Oct 03 '12 at 09:56

sale

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score 8 · Answer 6 · answered May 01 '12 at 00:45

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I use this one:

nnoremap / ms/
nnoremap ? ms?

Then if I search something by using / or ?, I can go back quickly by `s. You could replace the letter s to any letter you like.

answered May 01 '12 at 00:45

Ethan Zhang

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Only caveat here is it breaks searching in a window such as NerdTree where `m` is defined to be something other than mark, in the case of NerdTree it is menu. – Kris Mar 14 '14 at 10:31

score 7 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 10 '08 at 12:47

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The simplest way is to set a mark, with m[letter], then go back to it with '[letter]

answered Sep 10 '08 at 12:47

Paul Tomblin

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It's a treat to see you when I search for vim tips. I've been using ctrl-o more along with ctrl-i because it steps back and forth easier and more automatically. – MattK Dec 22 '11 at 00:54

In vim, how do I go back to where I was before a search?

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