Vim Search & Replace

Most IDEs today includes a built-in way of searching and replacing a pattern across multiple files. Vim is no different.

Like many operations in Vim, there are 2 approaches you can take:

1. The “pure”/“native” way

2. Using a plugin

Today I needed to rename a ReactJS component from “NewRoleModal” to “RoleModal”. Let’s use this example.

The Native Approach

Utilize day-to-day CLI commands for the job, in two steps:

1. Search all file names that include the term “NewRoleModal” in the relevant path, and set the result into the argslist.

   :args `grep -rl 'NewRoleModal' app/react/modules`

• If you want to check the content of the argslist just type :args.

• Feel free to use your favorite search command here instead of grep (e.g. ack, git grep etc.)

2. Perform the replace action on all the search results and save.

   :argdo %s/NewRoleModal/RoleModal/g | update

   • argdo iterates over all files and executes the substitution command.

   • update saves the input from the piped result, meaning the changed files.

The “Easy” approach

Erik recommended me the straightforward vim-easygrep plugin.

After installation[1] just use the Replace command:

:Replace NewRoleModal RoleModal

A useful keymapping I found is <Leader>vr - “perform a global search on the word under the cursor and prompt for a pattern with which to replace it.”

[1] Add dkprice/vim-easygrep to .vimrc with your preferred plugin manager.