Is it possible to interactively delete matching search pattern in Vim?

Question

There is a phrase that I want to look for in Vim. When found, I want to delete that occurrence of the phrase. What is the easiest way to cycle through all the occurrences (via <

Answer 1

1. In my opinion, the most convenient way is to search for one occurrence first, and then invoke the following :substitute command:

:%s///gc

Since the pattern is empty, this :substitute command will look for the occurrences of the last-used search pattern, and will then replace them with the empty string, each time asking for user confirmation, realizing exactly the desired behavior.

2. If it is a common pattern in one’s editing habits, one can further define a couple of text-object selection mappings to operate specifically on the match of the last search pattern under the cursor. The following two mappings can be used in both Visual and Operator-pending modes to select the text of the preceding match of the last search pattern.

vnoremap  i/ :call SelectMatch()
onoremap  i/ :call SelectMatch()
function! SelectMatch()
    if search(@/, 'bcW')
        norm! v
        call search(@/, 'ceW')
    else
        norm! gv
    endif
endfunction

Using these mappings one can delete the match under the cursor with di/, or apply any other operator or visually select it with vi/.