How can I search for a string between certain line numbers?

Question

This is a problem I had recently. I have a file with several hundred lines of text. How can I search for a string between two specific line numbers? For e.g. I want to search between line numbers 100 and 325.

Answer 1

:100,235g/foo/#<CR>

then press :147<CR> to jump to the desired line.

You can also use :ilist:

:100,235il foo<CR>

See :help range, :help :global and :help :ilist.

Answer 2

There is another way to search between particular lines.

/%>{linenumber}l\%<{linenumber}{pattern}

Example:

/%>199l\%<300lgood

This will search from line 200 to 299 for the pattern 'good'.

%>199l - l is for line, >199 denotes the lines greater than 199

Answer 3

100GV325G<esc>
/\v%Vpattern

• 100GV325G<esc> visually select lines from 100 to 325, return to normal mode.
• /\v%Vpattern use :h /\%V to limit search ranges to last visual area.

If your pattern contains newline, you must add another \%V to restrict pattern end in visual area:

100GV325G<esc>
/\v%Vpattern%V

• :h /\%V

Answer 4

Sometimes you need to search for a given symbol within a function/method

  void f(bool b)
  {
    b;
    b;
  }

  void g(bool b)
  {
    b;  
    b;  
    b;  
    b;  
  }

In order to search for b in f() only:

• go to { of f()
• enter visual mode with V
• go to end of f() with '%'
• go to exec line with ':' command.
• once you are in command line input il b to get :'<,'>il b

After <CR>(enter) you get

b.cpp
  1:   15     b;
  2:   16     b;
Press ENTER or type command to continue