0

I have 100K rows file and every row contain date 12/13/2019. I want to replace that date with 12/20/2019. But when I am entering the command like :%s/12/13/2019/12/20/2019/g. It gives an error that couldn't find pattern. Format for date is (MM/DD/YYYY)

Abdullah Nasir
  • 74
  • 1
  • 6
  • 2
    StackOverflow is dedicated to helping solve programming code problems. Your Q **may be** more appropriate for [su] or [vim.se] , but read their help section regarding on-topic questions . AND please read [Help On-topic](https://stackoverflow.com/Help/On-topic) and [Help How-to-ask](https://stackoverflow.com/Help/How-to-ask) before posting more Qs here. Good luck. – shellter Oct 03 '20 at 15:05
  • use backslashes and be careful of course on your REGEXP . – francois P Oct 03 '20 at 15:06
  • Does this answer your question? [How to include forward slash in vi search & replace](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11823616/how-to-include-forward-slash-in-vi-search-replace) – phd Oct 03 '20 at 15:32
  • https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=%5Bvim%5D+search+slash – phd Oct 03 '20 at 15:32
  • @phd I'm not sure that's a full duplicate. This question includes a `solaris` tag, and the behavior of current versions of `vim` and/or `vi` may not be applicable to the `vi` likely found on older Solaris releases. – Andrew Henle Oct 04 '20 at 15:40
  • @AndrewHenle I'm sure it's a full dup. Escaping slash with a backslash or using a different search character works in any `vi` clone in any OS. – phd Oct 17 '20 at 12:00

1 Answers1

1

A substitution is made of several parts:

:<range>s/<search>/<replace>/<flags>

Between those parts, you have / as default separator. Since / separates the <search> part from the <replace> part, any / in your search pattern is going to be interpreted as a separator, leading to undesirable results.

One solution is to escape your slashes with an anti-slash:

:%s/12\/13\/2019/12\/20\/2019/g

Another one (my favourite) is to use an alternative separator:

:%s@12/13/2019@12/20/2019@g

Reference:

:help :s
:help pattern-delimiter
romainl
  • 186,200
  • 21
  • 280
  • 313