Vim: Regular Expressions - Beginning/End of Line, Single Characters, Special Characters, and Marks

this power comes at a price, because regular expressions are a bit tricky to specify. In this section we mention only a few essential ones. More about search patterns and commands can be found in chapter 27 |usr_27.txt|. You can find the full explanation here: |pattern|. BEGINNING AND END OF A LINE The ^ character matches the beginning of a line. On an English-US keyboard you find it above the 6. The pattern "include" matches the word include anywhere on the line. But the pattern "^include" matches the word include only if it is at the beginning of a line. The $ character matches the end of a line. Therefore, "was$" matches the word was only if it is at the end of a line. Let's mark the places where "/the" matches in this example line with "x"s: the solder holding one of the chips melted and the ~ xxx xxx xxx Using "/the$" we find this match: the solder holding one of the chips melted and the ~ xxx And with "/^the" we find this one: the solder holding one of the chips melted and the ~ xxx You can try searching with "/^the$"; it will only match a single line consisting entirely of "the". White space does matter here, thus if a line contains a space after the word, like "the ", the pattern will not match. MATCHING ANY SINGLE CHARACTER The . (dot) character matches any existing character. For example, the pattern "c.m" matches a string whose first character is a c, whose second character is anything, and whose third character is m. Example: We use a computer that became the cummin winter. ~ xxx xxx xxx MATCHING SPECIAL CHARACTERS If you really want to match a dot, you must avoid its special meaning by putting a backslash before it. If you search for "ter.", you will find these matches: We use a computer that became the cummin winter. ~ xxxx xxxx Searching for "ter\." only finds the second match. ============================================================================== *03.10* Using marks When you make a jump to a position with the "G" command, Vim remembers the position from before this jump. This position is called a mark. To go back where you came from, use this command: > `` This ` is a backtick or open single-quote character. If you use the same command a second time you will jump back again. That's because the "`" command is a jump itself, and the position from before this jump is remembered. Generally, every time you do a command that can move the cursor further than within the same line, this is called a jump. This includes the search commands "/" and "n" (it doesn't matter how far away the match is). But not the character searches with "fx" and "tx" or the word movements "w" and "e". Also, "j" and "k" are not considered to be a jump,

This section introduces basic regular expressions in Vim, focusing on matching the beginning (^) and end ($) of a line. It explains how to match any single character using '.' and how to match special characters like '.' by escaping them with a backslash. The section also discusses Vim marks and how to use the `` command to jump back to the previous cursor position after a jump, defining a 'jump' as any command that moves the cursor beyond the current line, excluding single-line movements like 'fx' and 'tx'.