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Using Vim, I am trying to search for all instances of a specific string, except for those that fall somewhere in between two other specific strings. For example, I want to determine all instances ...
#2: Post edited
Using Vim, I am trying to search for all instances of a string, except for those that fall somewhere in between two specific strings.- For example, I want to determine all instances of `bird`, except for those that fall somewhere between `abc` and `xyz`. So in the text below, a successful command would find only the 1st and 3rd instances of `bird` on line 1, and only the 1st instance of `bird` on line 2:
- ```
- bird ant abc cow bird xyz cat bird
- cat dog fish bird abc bird horse xyz
- ```
- ---
- **my best efforts:**
- This search seems to find all instances of `bird` that do not have `xyz` somewhere after them:
- ```
- /bird\(.*xyz\)\@!
- ```
- This search seems to find all instances of `bird` that do not have `abc` somewhere before them (a similar example is shown in `:help \@<!`)
- ```
- /\(abc.*\)\@<!bird
- ```
- But naively trying to combine these two patterns does not work:
- ```
- /\(abc.*\)\@<!bird\(.*xyz\)\@!
- ```
- Using Vim, I am trying to search for all instances of a specific string, except for those that fall somewhere in between two other specific strings.
- For example, I want to determine all instances of `bird`, except for those that fall somewhere between `abc` and `xyz`. So in the text below, a successful command would find only the 1st and 3rd instances of `bird` on line 1, and only the 1st instance of `bird` on line 2:
- ```
- bird ant abc cow bird xyz cat bird
- cat dog fish bird abc bird horse xyz
- ```
- ---
- **my best efforts:**
- This search seems to find all instances of `bird` that do not have `xyz` somewhere after them:
- ```
- /bird\(.*xyz\)\@!
- ```
- This search seems to find all instances of `bird` that do not have `abc` somewhere before them (a similar example is shown in `:help \@<!`)
- ```
- /\(abc.*\)\@<!bird
- ```
- But naively trying to combine these two patterns does not work:
- ```
- /\(abc.*\)\@<!bird\(.*xyz\)\@!
- ```
#1: Initial revision
Vim: how to search for all instances of a string, except for those that are between two specific strings
Using Vim, I am trying to search for all instances of a string, except for those that fall somewhere in between two specific strings. For example, I want to determine all instances of `bird`, except for those that fall somewhere between `abc` and `xyz`. So in the text below, a successful command would find only the 1st and 3rd instances of `bird` on line 1, and only the 1st instance of `bird` on line 2: ``` bird ant abc cow bird xyz cat bird cat dog fish bird abc bird horse xyz ``` --- **my best efforts:** This search seems to find all instances of `bird` that do not have `xyz` somewhere after them: ``` /bird\(.*xyz\)\@! ``` This search seems to find all instances of `bird` that do not have `abc` somewhere before them (a similar example is shown in `:help \@<!`) ``` /\(abc.*\)\@<!bird ``` But naively trying to combine these two patterns does not work: ``` /\(abc.*\)\@<!bird\(.*xyz\)\@! ```