Live Substitution In Neovim
===========================

Replacing text in vim can be quite frustrating especially since it doesn't have live feedback to what is changing. Today I was watching Josh Branchaud's...

Date: January 4, 2021

Replacing text in vim can be quite frustrating especially since it doesn't have
live feedback to what is changing. Today I was watching Josh Branchaud's
Vim-Unalphabet series on Youtuve and realized that his vim was doing this and I
had to have it.

## How to do it

I had to do a bit of searching and found a great post from [vimcasts](https://vimcasts.org/episodes/neovim-eyecandy/) that shows exactly how to get the live search and replace highlighting using `inccomand`

## :h inccommand

``` vim
'inccommand' 'icm' string (default "")
 global

 "nosplit": Shows the effects of a command incrementally, as you type.
 "split" : Also shows partial off-screen results in a preview window.

 Works for |:substitute|, |:smagic|, |:snomagic|. |hl-Substitute|

 If the preview is too slow (exceeds 'redrawtime') then 'inccommand' is
 automatically disabled until |Command-line-mode| is done.

```

## Add this to your config

I believe that this is a neovim only feature, add it into your
`~/.config/nvim/init.vim` file. You can see it in my
[dotfiles](https://github.com/WaylonWalker/devtainer/blob/main/nvim/.config/nvim/settings.vim#L155)
as well.

``` vim
set inccommand=nosplit
```

## See it in Action

![example live
substitution](https://images.waylonwalker.com/nvim-live-substitute-inccommand.gif)

## The Video that inspired this

Check out Josh Branchaud's great series on the Vim-Unalphabet.