3.3.1 Repeating Searches

[n] The last pattern that you searched for stays available throughout your editing session. After a search, instead of repeating your original keystrokes, you can use a command to search again for the last pattern.

n	Repeat search in same direction.
N	Repeat search in opposite direction.
/ [RETURN]	Repeat search forward.
? [RETURN]	Repeat search backward.

Since the last pattern stays available, you can search for a pattern, do some work, and then search again for the same pattern without retyping it by using n, N, / or ?. The direction of your search (/ is forward, ? is backward) is displayed at the bottom left of the screen.

To continue with the example above, since the pattern scr is still available for search, you can:

Keystrokes	Results
n	With a screen editor you can scroll the page, move the cursor, delete lines, insert characters, and more, while seeing the results of your edits as you make them.
	Move to the next instance of the pattern scr (from screen to scroll) with the n (next) command.
?you	With a screen editor you can scroll the page, move the cursor, delete lines, insert characters, and more, while seeing the results of your edits as you make them.
	Search backward with ? from the cursor to the first occurrence of you. You need to press RETURN after typing the pattern.
N	With a screen editor you can scroll the page, move the cursor, delete lines, insert characters, and more, while seeing the results of your edits as you make them.
	Repeat previous search for you but in the opposite direction (forward).

Sometimes you want to find a word only if it is further ahead; you don't want the search to wrap around earlier in the file. vi has an option, wrapscan, that controls whether searches wrap. You can disable wrapping like this:

:set nowrapscan

When nowrapscan is set and a forward search fails, the status line displays the message:

Address search hit BOTTOM without matching pattern

When nowrapscan is set and a backward search fails, the message displays "TOP" instead of "BOTTOM".

This section has given only the barest introduction to searching for patterns. Chapter 6, Global Replacement, will teach more about pattern matching and its use in making global changes to a file.

3.3.2 Current Line Searches

[f] There are also miniature versions of the search commands that operate within the current line. The command fx moves the cursor to the next instance of the character x (where x stands for any character). The command tx moves the cursor to the character before the next instance of x. Semicolons can then be used repeatedly to "find" your way along.

The in-line search commands are summarized below. None of these commands will move the cursor to the next line.

fx	Find (move cursor to) next occurrence of x in the line, where x stands for any character.
Fx	Find (move cursor to) previous occurrence of x in the line.
tx	Find (move cursor to) character before next occurrence of x in the line.
Tx	Find (move cursor to) character after previous occurrence of x in the line.
;	Repeat previous find command in same direction.
,	Repeat previous find command in opposite direction.

With any of these commands, a numeric prefix n will locate the nth occurrence. Suppose you are editing in practice, on this line:

With a screen editor you can scroll the

dfx deletes up to and including the named character x. This command is useful in deleting or yanking partial lines. You might need to use dfx instead of dw if there were symbols or punctuation within the line that made counting words difficult. The t command works just like f, except that it positions the cursor before the character searched for. For example, the command ct. could be used to change text up to the end of a sentence, leaving the period.