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I want to use word completion in Ex mode, similar to using Ctrl-N in Insert mode to complete the current word.

Suppose, I want to do a substitution: :%s/<pattern>/<replacement>/gc. If the cursor is on the word to substitute, I could use C-R C-W to paste it into Ex mode (command-line). However, sometimes the cursor is far away from the word to substitute, and here word completion would be beneficial.

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Not exactly what you want, but you can get insert-like completion in Command-line window, which is opened with q:. Just add b option to complete in your .vimrc, so vim will scan all opened buffers.

:set complete+=b

See:

:h cmdline-window
:h 'complete'
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  • Thank you. cmdline-window is Ex mode too, right? It’s just a window, instead of a single cmdline. – Shuzheng Jul 24 '20 at 5:18
  • How do I see the :h for the proper version of complete? If I do :h complete, then I get help for a function complete({startcol}, {matches}). – Shuzheng Jul 24 '20 at 6:52
  • Surround complete with single quotes like in answer. – Dmitry Jul 24 '20 at 10:45
  • Yes, cmdline-window allows you switch modes and execute command on Enter key press. Also it shows commands history, so you can search easy with / – Dmitry Jul 24 '20 at 10:51

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