Is the pattern .\{-}\> equivalent to the move command e?

Question

What is the appropriate way to make a pattern that matches up until the point where the move command e would have moved to?

Consider this text: texttext%0s: cookie after performing /%<CR>ve the part %0s would be selected, this is the part I want to replace with something else.

I tried :s/%.\{-}\> which seems to match the right thing (as little as possible until end of word) but I'm not sure if it's 100% correct and how to interpret the manual:

:help \>

\>      Matches the end of a word: The previous char is the last char of a
        word.  The 'iskeyword' option specifies what is a word character.

:help e

e                       Forward to the end of word [count] inclusive.
                        Does not stop in an empty line.

Is the only difference that e moves past newlines?

Answer 1

Yes, it is equivalent, except as you say it doesn't span lines.

First the \> matches a "end of a word" ( as defined by iskeyword). So it matches something that you could reach with the e command.

The important part is the .\{-}. With it the the expression .\{-}\> becomes "match from here to the next "end of word" in the same line. This is the same as e.

In contrast .*\> means "match from here to the last end of word in the current line".

The . does not match line breaks, but \_. does. So %\_.\{-}\> would match

%
word