search replace for 1 line

Question

I've been following how to do search replace in vim, but somehow it doesnt work for my case. For example, I have the following code:

x(i,1,1) = y(i,1,1) + z(i,1,1)

Now, I want to change the last index, i.e change "x(i,1,1) to x(i,1,2)" and similar for y and z. I can just go change this manually but if I want to try our vim, just in case I have a larger expressions.

What I did: select the line visual mode (Shift + V). Then press :, then vim has this in the status bar :'<,'>, now I type: s/,1)/,2).

That only changes the first variable. In other words, I have this:

x(i,1,2) = y(i,1,1) + z(i,1,1)

Y and Z are not changed, even if they are on the same line and are selected together with X in visual mode.

Please help

Answer 1

So you want to make the substitution occur on every match of the pattern on the line and not only the first match. What you can do is read :h :s, where you'll find:

:[range]s[ubstitute]/{pattern}/{string}/[flags] [count]
    [...]
    See |:s_flags| for [flags].

So you can go to :h :s_flags where you'll find:

[g] Replace all occurrences in the line.  Without this argument,
    replacement occurs only for the first occurrence in each line. 

So you'll add /g to your command like this: :s/,1)/,2)/g and you'll have the behavior you want.

Note that the tag c is often useful when you use g:

[c] Confirm each substitution. 

Also when you use :s by default it operates on the current line so you don't need to visually select the line.

One last note: the UI component where you type :'<,'>s... is not the status line, it's the command line. The status line is the line at the bottom of a window is you set laststatus (see :h status-line and :h Command-line to get the difference)