Highlight all occurrence of a selected word?

Question

How can I highlight all occurrence of a selected word in GVim, like in Notepad++?

Answer 1

set hlsearch

maybe ?

Answer 2

First ensure that hlsearch is enabled by issuing the following command

:set hlsearch

You can also add this to your .vimrc file as set

set hlsearch

now when you use the quick search mechanism in command mode or a regular search command, all results will be highlighted. To move forward between results, press 'n' to move backwards press 'N'

In normal mode, to perform a quick search for the word under the cursor and to jump to the next occurrence in one command press '*', you can also search for the word under the cursor and move to the previous occurrence by pressing '#'

In normal mode, quick search can also be invoked with the

/searchterm<Enter>

to remove highlights on ocuurences use, I have bound this to a shortcut in my .vimrc

:nohl

Answer 3

to highlight word without moving cursor, plop

" highlight reg. ex. in @/ register
set hlsearch
" remap `*`/`#` to search forwards/backwards (resp.)
" w/o moving cursor
nnoremap <silent> * :execute "normal! *N"<cr>
nnoremap <silent> # :execute "normal! #n"<cr>

into your vimrc.

What's nice about this is g* and g# will still work like "normal" * and #.

---

To set hlsearch off, you can use "short-form" (unless you have another function that starts with "noh" in command mode): :noh. Or you can use long version: :nohlsearch

For extreme convenience (I find myself toggling hlsearch maybe 20 times per day), you can map something to toggle hlsearch like so:

" search highlight toggle
nnoremap <silent> <leader>st :set hlsearch!<cr>

.:. if your <leader> is \ (it is by default), you can press \st (quickly) in normal mode to toggle hlsearch.

Or maybe you just want to have :noh mapped:

" search clear
nnoremap <silent> <leader>sc :nohlsearch<cr>

The above simply runs :nohlsearch so (unlike :set hlsearch!) it will still highlight word next time you press * or # in normal mode.

cheers

Answer 4

For example this plugIns:

• https://github.com/rrethy/vim-illuminate

• https://github.com/itchyny/vim-cursorword

Just search for under cursor in vimawesome.com

The key, as clagccs mentioned, is that the highlight does NOT conflict with your search: https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Auto_highlight_current_word_when_idle

Screen-shot of how it does NOT conflict with search: Notes:

• vim-illuminate highlights by default, in my screen-shot I switched to underline
• vim-illuminate highlights/underlines word under cursor by default, in my screen-shot I unset it
• my colorschemes are very grey-ish. Check yours to customize it too.

Answer 5

Use autocmd CursorMoved * exe printf('match IncSearch /\V\<%s\>/', escape(expand('<cword>'), '/\'))

Make sure you have IncSearch set to something. e.g call s:Attr('IncSearch', 'reverse'). Alternatively you can use another highlight group in its place.

This will highlight all occurrences of words under your cursor without a delay. I find that a delay slows me down when I'm wizzing through code. The highlight color will match the color of the word, so it stays consistent with your scheme.

Answer 6

the simplest way, type in normal mode *

I also have these mappings to enable and disable

"highligh search enabled by default
set hlsearch
"now you can toggle it
nnoremap <S-F11> <ESC>:set hls! hls?<cr>
inoremap <S-F11> <C-o>:set hls! hls?<cr>
vnoremap <S-F11> <ESC>:set hls! hls?<cr> <bar> gv

Select word by clickin on it

set mouse=a     "Enables mouse click
nnoremap <silent> <2-LeftMouse> :let @/='\V\<'.escape(expand('<cword>'), '\').'\>'<cr>:set hls<cr>

Bonus: CountWordFunction

fun! CountWordFunction()
    try
        let l:win_view = winsaveview()
        let l:old_query = getreg('/')
        let var = expand("<cword>")
        exec "%s/" . var . "//gn"
    finally
        call winrestview(l:win_view)
        call setreg('/', l:old_query)
    endtry
endfun
" Bellow we set a command "CountWord" and a mapping to count word
" change as you like it
command! -nargs=0 CountWord :call CountWordFunction()
nnoremap <f3> :CountWord<CR>

Selecting word with mouse and counting occurrences at once: OBS: Notice that in this version we have "CountWord" command at the end

nnoremap <silent> <2-LeftMouse> :let @/='\V\<'.escape(expand('<cword>'), '\').'\>'<cr>:set hls<cr>:CountWord<cr>