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gn: edit match after match

Change, delete or skip each match in turn, and count them.

?how it works

gn selects the next match of the last search, or the one under the cursor, in Visual mode. After an operator it works on exactly that match: cgn changes it, dgn deletes it, gUgn uppercases it.

The magic is in .: it repeats the whole thing on the next match, wherever it is. So you search once, cgn and type the new text, then press . for each match you want changed and n for each one you want to skip. It's a find-and-replace where you decide at every step, and it works with any pattern, \zs and \ze included. gN does the same going backward.

To count matches instead of changing them, run :%s/{pattern}//gn. The n flag reports "5 matches on 3 lines" and leaves the text alone; with an empty pattern, :%s///gn counts the last search.

Unlike n, gn always searches forward (and gN backward), even after a ? search.

⌨keys

`gn`	select the next match (or the one under the cursor)
`gN`	select the previous match
`cgn`	change the next match; . repeats on the following one
`dgn`	delete the next match; . repeats
`:%s/{pat}//gn`	count the matches without changing anything

Nin neovim

Neovim shows the match count, like [3/7], every time you search or press n (it leaves S out of 'shortmess'), so for a quick count you can often skip :s///gn.

4 drills

Change every match with cgn and .: Change every whole-word match of the word under the cursor. Set the pattern with *, change one match with cgn, then repeat with ..
Change some, skip some: Change the matches the target changes and keep the others. Use cgn and . to change, n to skip.
Delete every match with dgn: Delete every match of a pattern whose matches differ in length. Search once, then dgn and ..
Change part of each match (\zs): Change only the value after the key in each match. Use \zs so the match starts at the value, then cgn and ..

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