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So often if I have a code expression like points.length - 1 and I want to replace it with a variable (for example, named target_idx then I'll define the variable:

int target_idx = points.length - 1;

But now I want to go and replace all instances of points.length - 1 with target_idx. I'm aware I could do :%s/points.length - 1/target_idx/g, but I'm not too confident in my regex and don't want to mistakenly replace points.length - 11 or points+length - 1 by mistake. (I'm also aware of very magic searching, but also am not super confident about all the subtleties of what it does/doesn't consider special characters)

So what I want is to be able to search for instances matching points.length - 1 via /points.length - 1 and then go through the search results with n, and then replace the text with target_idx.

But because the searched-for text could have spaces or other characters, I can't simply change to the end of the Word cE since this would only change points.length in my example.

Is there a text motion that goes to the end of the searched-for text?

So I could go

  1. n
  2. c<special text motion here>
  3. target_idx
  4. repeat from 1.

I'm using neovim with CoC installed, so am open to more in-depth ideas with plugins or language server replacements, but this feels like it should be a simple text motion that I just don't know of.

beyarkay
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2 Answers2

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I guess you can go for gn (:help gn for details). (gN searches backward.)

On the other hand, you can give :s/…/…/ the flag c so that it asks you to confirm every substitution (:help :s_flags for details).

Besides, you could most likely take advantage of . to make steps 2 and 3 in one keystroke (:help . for details). In your specific example, you'd do this the first time,

/points\.length - 1Entercf1target_idxEscape

and then just keep going to next match via n and applying the change via ..

The :s solution with c flag I mentioned above is faster, as you only press y/n instead of n/n..

Enlico
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    Thanks, `gn` was exactly what I was looking for. Although I didn't know about the `c` flag, and will definitely use it in the future. – beyarkay May 12 '22 at 11:28
2

You are halfway there with:

:%s/points.length - 1/target_idx/g

All you need is the /c flag:

:%s/points.length - 1/target_idx/gc

which tells Vim to ask for confirmation for each substitution.

See :help :s_flags.

But you might want to look into CoC and the specific language server you use. Maybe they provide higher-level refactoring commands.

romainl
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