Search and replace

==Using the current word or registers==
{{anchor|substitute_last_search}}
;<code>:%s//bar/g</code>
:Replace each match of the last search pattern with 'bar'.
:For example, you might first place the cursor on the word <code>foo</code> then press <code>*</code> to search for that word.
:The above substitute would then change all words exactly matching 'foo' to 'bar'.

;<code>:%s/foo/<c-r><c-w>/g</code>
:Replace each occurrence of 'foo' with the word under the cursor.
:<code><c-r><c-w></code> means that you press Ctrl-R then Ctrl-W.
:The word under the cursor will be inserted as though you typed it.

;<code>:%s/foo/<c-r><c-a>/g</code>
:Replace each occurrence of 'foo' with the WORD under the cursor (delimited by whitespace).
:<code><c-r><c-a></code> means that you press Ctrl-R then Ctrl-A.
:The WORD under the cursor will be inserted as though you typed it.

;<code>:%s/foo/<c-r>a/g</code>
:Replace each occurrence of 'foo' with the contents of register 'a'.
:<code><c-r>a</code> means that you press Ctrl-R then <code>a</code>.
:The contents of register 'a' will be inserted as though you typed it.

;<code>:%s/foo/<c-r>0/g</code>
:Same as above, using register 0 which contains the text from the most recent yank command. Examples of yank (copy) commands are <code>yi(</code> which copies the text inside parentheses around the cursor, and <code>y$</code> which copies the text from the cursor to the end of the line. After a yank command which did not specify a destination register, the copied text can be entered by pressing Ctrl-R then <code>0</code>.

;<code>:%s/foo/\=@a/g</code>
:Replace each occurrence of 'foo' with the contents of register 'a'.
:<code>\=@a</code> is a reference to register 'a'.
:The contents of register 'a' is not shown in the command. This is useful if the register contains many lines of text.

;<code>:%s//<c-r>//g</code>
:Replace each match of the last search pattern with the <code>/</code> register (the last search pattern).
:After pressing Ctrl-R then <code>/</code> to insert the last search pattern (and before pressing Enter to perform the command), you could edit the text to make any required change.

;<code>:%s/<c-r>*/bar/g</code>
:Replace all occurrences of the text in the system clipboard (in the <code>*</code> register) with 'bar' (see next example if multiline).
:On some systems, selecting text (in Vim or another application) is all that is required to place that text in the <code>*</code> register.

;<code>:%s/<c-r>a/bar/g</code>
:Replace all occurrences of the text in register 'a' with 'bar'.
:<code><c-r>a</code> means that you press Ctrl-R then <code>a</code>. The contents of register 'a' will be inserted as though you typed it.
:Any newlines in register 'a' are inserted as <code>^M</code> and are not found.
:The search works if each <code>^M</code> is manually replaced with '\n' (two characters: backslash, 'n').
:This replacement can be performed while you type the command:
::<code>:%s/<c-r>=substitute(@a,"\n",'\\n','g')<CR>/bar/g</code>
:The <code>"\n"</code> (double quotes) represents the single character newline; the <code>'\\n'</code> (single quotes) represents two backslashes followed by '<code>n</code>'.
:The <code>substitute()</code> function is evaluated by the <code><c-r>=</code> (Ctrl-R <code>=</code>) expression register; it replaces each newline with a single backslash followed by '<code>n</code>'.
:The <code><CR></code> indicates that you press Enter to finish the <code>=</code> expression.

;<code>:%s/<c-r>0/bar/g</code>
:Same as above, using register 0 which contains the text from the most recent yank command.

See [[VimTip490|Paste registers in search or colon commands instead of using the clipboard]].