~ / search / whole-wordslesson 3/7

Whole words: * # g* and \< \>

Search for the word under the cursor, and only whole words.

?how it works

* searches forward for the word under the cursor, # searches backward. No typing at all: put the cursor on a variable and press * to see where else it's used.

They only find whole words. * on id skips idx and valid, because it really searches for \<id\>. \< matches the start of a word and \> its end; neither matches a character, they mark a boundary. You can type them yourself: /\<is\> finds "is" but not "this" or "island".

g* and g# search for the same word without the boundaries, so g* on user also stops in username.

* sets the last search pattern, so n, N and an empty pattern reuse it: * then :%s//new renames the word on every line. Add /g when a line has it more than once; otherwise the closing / is optional.

* and # use 'ignorecase' but not 'smartcase' (more on those in the case lesson).

⌨keys

`*`	search forward for the whole word under the cursor
`#`	search backward for the whole word under the cursor
`g*`	like *, but also matches inside longer words
`g#`	like #, but also matches inside longer words
`\<`	pattern: start of a word
`\>`	pattern: end of a word
`:%s//{new}`	substitute the last search pattern on every line

Nin neovim

Neovim adds * and # in Visual mode by default (:h v_star-default): select some text, press *, and it searches forward for exactly that text, dots, slashes and spaces included (# searches backward). Plain Vim has no such mapping. The Neovim module has drills for it.

4 drills

Jump with *: Jump to the next whole-word use of the word under the cursor.
Look back with #: Jump back to the target: an earlier whole-word use of the word under the cursor.
Partial matches with g*: Jump to the target, a longer word that contains the word under the cursor.
Rename with * and :s//: Rename the variable under the cursor everywhere, without touching longer words that contain it. Use *, then :s with an empty pattern.

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