Create a mapping that works whilst searching

Question

I have jk remapped to <Esc> in insert mode and for some reason my brain always want's to exit a search by typing jk. I would like to remap jk to <CR> when performing a search. I.e typing /searchjk will put me in normal mode with the cursor over the next occurrence of 'search'. Is there a special mapping mode for search?

Answer 1

You can use :cnoremap, which works for search / but also for Ex commands, that you enter with :. See :help :map-modes for more information on the map modes available.

(To be exact, there are a few more cases where the command-line mappings apply, such as the input() function, or entering an expression for the expression register with <C-R>= from Insert mode, etc.)

If using this mapping for both modes is acceptable to you, then the following should work:

cnoremap jk <CR>

If you want to cover only search mode, then you can use the getcmdtype() function to only expand the mapping in that case. Use an <expr> mapping to evaluate the function.

cnoremap <expr> jk getcmdtype() =~ '^[/?]$' ? '<CR>' : 'jk'

We're using a =~ regular expression match to cover both / for a forward search and a ? for a backward search.

Note that the mapping acts on all the command-line modes (including an Ex command, input() box, expression register), just it expands back to jk in the cases where it's not in a search context. In particular, this will make the j delay when typing it in a command (Vim will wait for the next character to see whether to trigger the mapping or not.) You can possibly improve on this by adding an <expr> mapping for k alone, then checking whether it's preceded by a j (use getcmdline() and getcmdpos()) and in that case producing a sequence that will erase the j (with a backspace) and produce the <CR> that will execute the search. It's doable, but quite some work...