vim-bettersearch

##Why Having a large file and you need to search for a few keywords from it?

And wish that you can see all the search result in a "search result window"?

Best with highlight on the keyword?

And you would wish to jump to that particular line when you see something interesting?

Here is what for you!

Solution approach: works somewhat similarly to notepad++ search function, but of course this is much better as it is in vim!

##Features offered

• This script is written to copy all the search result and put it to window above the content.
• The search result is 'jumpable' to the content window by just enter on that particular search line
• Search term highlight can be switched on and off
• Search keyword can be saved to clipboard

Example Usage

There are a few way to use the function of this script. ###[ Usage 1 ] User intended to type in the search words

:BetterSearchPromptOn

then ENTER. A window will pop up for user input. The user input can consists of more than one search term. For example: search_A|search_B|search_C...

###[ Usage 2 ] User intended to use the word under the cursor as the search term

:BetterSearchPromptOn

then ENTER, and press ENTER again when the user input dialog box appear without type in any word

###[ Usage 3 ] User intended to use the word highlighted in visual mode.

Hightlight the word, then type

:BetterSearchVisualSelect

then ENTER.

###[ Jump to line ] A search window will be open up on top of the current window. Press ENTER on that particular line to jump to the content window.

Other Commands

Other command available by the script. (or press F1 when the focus/cursor is at the search window)

':BetterSearchSwitchWin'        - to switch between the 'Search Window' and the 'Content Window'
':BetterSearchVisualSelect'     - to search based on the visually selected word
':BetterSearchHighlighToggle'   - to toggle keyword highlight on off (default is on)
':BetterSearchHighlightLimit'   - to toggle line limit to switch off keyword highlight, for efficiency purpose, especially for large matched, default is 5000 line
':BetterSearchCopyToClipBoard'  - to toggle whether to save to the search words to clipboard, default is off

HightLight Configuration

By default, this plugin can highlight up to 11 terms. For example, to use different highlight color for first and second search term

:let g:BetterSearchhighlight[0] = 'Directory'
:let g:BetterSearchhighlight[1] = 'BetterSearchHighlight10'

This plugin has a list of custom highlight definitions with the name of: BetterSearchHighlight0, BetterSearchHighlight1, ..., BetterSearchHighlight10

The internal vim highlight color name can be obtained by running

:highlight

Mapping

Suggest to map following in .vimrc, e.g:

nnoremap <A-S-F7> :BetterSearchPromptOn<CR>
vnoremap <A-S-F7> :BetterSearchVisualSelect<CR>
nnoremap <A-w>    :BetterSearchSwitchWin<CR>
nnoremap <A-S-q>  :BetterSearchCloseWin<CR>

Installation

Using Pathogen

mkdir -p ~/.vim/bundle
cd ~/.vim/bundle
git clone https://github.com/kenng/vim-bettersearch.git

The OLD way

1. Paste the betterSearch.vim script into plugin folder. E.g. Vim\vim73\plugin.
2. Restart the Vim session

Found a Bug

You may use the issue tracker to report the bug found.

Contribution

Contribution is welcomed!