Technology
 

Alternate delimiters for the replace command

From Vim Tips Wiki

(Redirected from VimTip406)

Tip 406 Previous Next created January 17, 2003 · complexity basic · author Raj Kiran · version 5.7


You don't need to use the slash character as the expression delimiter. Whatever character follows the :s is defined to be the delimiter character. You can use most non-alphanumeric characters (but not \, " or |). This is very handy when working with Unix filenames, as in the following example:

:s#/usr/local/#/opt/#

If you insist on using the normal slash, you have to escape each slash in the pattern with a backslash:

:s/\/usr\/local\//\/opt\//

As you can see, the escaping method is much less readable, so consider carefully your choice of delimiter character!

[edit] Comments