Vim: search and highlight but do not jump

Question

The super star (*) key in Vim will search for the word under the cursor and jump forward to the next match. The user can jump to the next matches with the n key.

Answer 1

:map cc :let @/ = '\<'.expand('<cword>').'\>'\|set hlsearch<C-M>

Answer 2

Similar to * we have

[I ..................... it shows where the word under the cursor appears

I also have some useful lines on my vimrc that can, maybe, help you

" When double click a word vim will hightlight all other ocurences
" see CountWordFunction()
" [I shows lines with word under the cursor
nnoremap <silent> <2-LeftMouse> :let @/='\V\<'.escape(expand('<cword>'), '\').'\>'<cr>:set hls<cr>:CountWord<cr>
nnoremap <Leader>* :let @/='\V\<'.escape(expand('<cword>'), '\').'\>'<cr>:set hls<cr>:CountWord<cr>

if !exists('*CountWordFunction')
    fun! CountWordFunction()
        try
            let l:win_view = winsaveview()
            exec "%s/" . expand("<cword>") . "//gn"
        finally
            call winrestview(l:win_view)
        endtry
    endfun
endif

command! -nargs=0 CountWord :call CountWordFunction()
cnoreabbrev cw CountWord
nnoremap <F3> :CountWord<CR>

Answer 3

The best solution:

1. don't add a jump to the jump list
2. the behavior of the star key is not be changed

so, try the plugin: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=4335

Much better than:

" a jump adds to the jump list
nnoremap * *``
" I got a dead loop on macvim
nnoremap * :keepjumps normal *``<cr>
" the behavior is changed
nnoremap <silent> <Leader>* :let @/='\<<C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR>\>'<CR>:set hls<CR>

Answer 4

I haven't seen this one yet:

nmap <silent> * "syiw<Esc>: let @/ = @s<CR>

It's very short and does not involve jumping around which can result in blinking.

Explanation: copy the word under cursor to s register and then set the search register (/) to the content of s register. The search register is not writeable directly, that's why the let is necessary and hence the silent to keep vim's command line clean.

Answer 5

I have the following in my .vimrc, which I think works better than the other alternatives:

" Put word under cursor into search register and highlight
nnoremap <silent> <Leader>* :let @/='\<<C-R>=expand("<cword>")<CR>\>'<CR>:set hls<CR>
vnoremap <silent> <Leader>* :<C-U>
  \let old_reg=getreg('"')<Bar>let old_regtype=getregtype('"')<CR>
  \gvy:let @/=substitute(
  \escape(@", '/\.*$^~['), '\_s\+', '\\_s\\+', 'g')<CR>
  \gV:call setreg('"', old_reg, old_regtype)<CR>:set hls<CR>

Answer 6

The other answers here are good, particularly @rodrigo's, but I wanted to write a solution that preserves scroll position and does so without affecting any of the marks.

This works for me:

function! StarPositionSave()
  let g:star_position_cursor = getpos('.')
  normal! H
  let g:star_position_top = getpos('.')
  call setpos('.', g:star_position_cursor)
endfunction
function! StarPositionRestore()
  call setpos('.', g:star_position_top)
  normal! zt
  call setpos('.', g:star_position_cursor)
endfunction
nnoremap <silent> * :call StarPositionSave()<CR>*:call StarPositionRestore()<CR>

Putting normal! * in the function directly doesn't seem to work, as (at least in neovim) it suppresses search highlighting from being triggered (as if :nohlsearch was run).