Change Case of last searched pattern

Question

I often use # key to quickly search for a keyword. I want to change the case of the last searched pattern in the easiest possible way.

One way to do this is to use \U\1 in the substitution part and pressing Ctrl-r followed by / in the search part of the standard substitution command, like this:

:%s/\(<Ctrl-r>/\)/\U\1/g

However, this is too unwieldy.

Is there some fast way to do this? That is, I press # key and then 4-5 keystrokes later, I have changed the case of all the matches.

Answer 1

There are two little things to change

1. First :s (and well as other search commands) will search the last searched pattern if we double the separator (usually /).
2. Then of course, there is no longer a group. So we cannot use \1. Fortunately, there is the match everything group: \0, or its shortcut: &

Hence:

:s//\U&/g

Answer 2

You can use gUgn to upper-case the next search match. Then press . repeatedly to keep changing more matches.

Note: This will not work with 'ignorecase' enabled (because the ignorecase setting will make gn select the current match over and over again). You can toggle the setting with :set ic! if needed (or add the \C atom to your pattern, which will make sure that the 'ignorecase' option does not apply).