How to search and replace globally, starting from the cursor position and wrapping around the end of file, in a single command invocation in Vim?

Question

When I search with the / Normal-mode command:

/\vSEARCHTERM

Vim starts the search from the cursor position and continues downwards, wrapping around to the top. However, when I search and replace using the :substitute command:

:%s/\vBEFORE/AFTER/gc

Vim starts at the top of the file, instead.

Is there a way to make Vim perform search and replace starting from the cursor position and wrapping around to the top once it reaches the end?

Answer 1

You are already using a range, %, which is short hand for 1,$ meaning the entire file. To go from the current line to the end you use .,$. The period means current line and $ means the last line. So the command would be:

:.,$s/\vBEFORE/AFTER/gc

But the . or current line can be assumed therefore can be removed:

:,$s/\vBEFORE/AFTER/gc

For more help see

:h range

Answer 2

1. It is not hard to achieve the behavior in question using a two-step substitution:

:,$s/BEFORE/AFTER/gc|1,''-&&

First, the substitution command is run for each line starting from the current one until the end of file:

,$s/BEFORE/AFTER/gc

Then, that :substitute command is repeated with the same search pattern, replacement string, and flags, using the :& command (see :help :&):

1,''-&&

The latter, however, performs the substitution on the range of lines from the first line of the file to the line where the previous context mark has been set, minus one. Since the first :substitute command stores the cursor position before starting actual replacements, the line addressed by '' is the line that was the current one before that substitution command was run. (The '' address refers to the ' pseudo-mark; see :help :range and :help '' for details.)

Note that the second command (after the | command separator—see :help :bar) does not require any change when the pattern or flags are altered in the first one.

2. To save some typing, in order to bring up the skeleton of the above substitution command in the command line, one can define a Normal-mode mapping, like so:

:noremap <leader>cs :,$s///gc\|1,''-&&<c-b><right><right><right><right>

The trailing <c-b><right><right><right><right> part is necessary to move the cursor to the beginning of the command line (<c-b>) and then four characters to the right (<right> × 4), thus putting it between the first two slash signs, ready for the user to start typing the search pattern. Once the desired pattern and the replacement are ready, the resulting command can be run by pressing Enter.

(One might consider having // instead of /// in the mapping above, if one prefers to type the pattern, then type the separating slash oneself, followed by the replacement string, instead of using the right arrow to move the cursor over an already present separating slash starting the replacement part.)

Answer 3

% is a shortcut for 1,$
( Vim help => :help :% equal to 1,$ (the entire file).)

. is the cursor postion so you can do

:.,$s/\vBEFORE/AFTER/gc

To replace from the beginning of the document till the cursor

:1,.s/\vBEFORE/AFTER/gc

etc

I strongly suggest you read the manual about range :help range as pretty much all commands work with a range.

Answer 4

I've FINALLY come up with a solution to the fact that quitting the search wraps around to the beginning of the file without writing an enormous function...

You wouldn't believe how long it took me to come up with this. Simply add a prompt whether to wrap: if the user presses q again, don't wrap. So basically, quit search by tapping qq instead of q! (And if you do want to wrap, just type y.)

:,$s/BEFORE/AFTER/gce|echo 'Continue at beginning of file? (y/q)'|if getchar()!=113|1,''-&&|en

I actually have this mapped to a hotkey. So, for example, if you want to search and replace every word under the cursor, starting from the current position, with q*:

exe 'nno q* :,$s/\<<c-r>=expand("<cword>")<cr>\>//gce\|echo "Continue at beginning of file? (y/q)"\|if getchar()==121\|1,''''-&&\|en'.repeat('<left>',77)

Answer 5

Here’s something very rough that addresses the concerns about wrapping the search around with the two-step approach (:,$s/BEFORE/AFTER/gc|1,''-&&) or with an intermediate “Continue at beginning of file?”-prompt approach:

" Define a mapping that calls a command.
nnoremap <Leader>e :Substitute/\v<<C-R>=expand('<cword>')<CR>>//<Left>

" And that command calls a script-local function.
command! -nargs=1 Substitute call s:Substitute(<q-args>)

function! s:Substitute(patterns)
  if getregtype('s') != ''
    let l:register = getreg('s')
  endif
  normal! qs
  redir => l:replacements
  try
    execute ',$s' . a:patterns . 'gce#'
  catch /^Vim:Interrupt$/
    return
  finally
    normal! q
    let l:transcript = getreg('s')
    if exists('l:register')
      call setreg('s', l:register)
    endif
  endtry
  redir END

  if len(l:replacements) > 0
    " At least one instance of pattern was found.
    let l:last = strpart(l:transcript, len(l:transcript) - 1)
    " Note: type the literal <Esc> (^[) here with <C-v><Esc>:
    if l:last ==# 'l' || l:last ==# 'q' || l:last ==# '^['
      " User bailed.
      return
    endif
  endif

  " Loop around to top of file and continue.
  " Avoid unwanted "Backwards range given, OK to swap (y/n)?" messages.
  if line("''") > 1
    1,''-&&"
  endif
endfunction

This function uses a couple of hacks to check whether we should wrap around to the top:

• No wrapping if user pressed L, Q, or Esc, any of which indicate a desire to abort.
• Detect that final key press by recording a macro into the s register and inspecting last character of it.
• Avoid overwriting an existing macro by saving/restoring the s register.
• If you are already recording a macro when using the command, all bets are off.
• Tries to do the right thing with interrupts.
• Avoids “backwards range” warnings with an explicit guard.

Answer 6

I am late to the party, but I relied too often on such late stackoverflow answerrs to not do it. I gathered hints on reddit and stackoverflow, and the best option is to use the \%>...c pattern in the search, which matches only after your cursor.

That said, it also messes up the pattern for the next replacement step, and is hard to type. To counter those effects, a custom function must filter the search pattern afterwards, thus resetting it. See below.

I have contended myself with a mapping that replaces the next occurence and jumps to the following after, and not more (was my goal anyway). I am sure, building on this, a global substitution can be worked out. Keep in mind when working on a solution aiming at something like :%s/.../.../g that the pattern below filters out matches in all lines left to the cursor position — but is cleaned up after the single substitution completes, so it loses that effect directly after, jumps to the next match and thus is able to run through all matches one by one.

fun! g:CleanColFromPattern(prevPattern)
    return substitute(a:prevPattern, '\V\^\\%>\[0-9]\+c', '', '')
endf
nmap <F3>n m`:s/\%><C-r>=col(".")-1<CR>c<C-.r>=g:CleanColFromPattern(getreg("/"))<CR>/~/&<CR>:call setreg("/", g:CleanColFromPattern(getreg("/")))<CR>``n