Substitution replaces only current line?

Question

I have a block of of text which contains variables whose name I want to change, but not all. I want to be able to choose which variables get replaced by the substitution and which do not. I tried using :%s/pattern/string/c, but the problem with that is that it starts from the beginning of the file, which also has the variables which I don't want to replace.

From :h :s:

:[range]s[ubstitute]/{pattern}/{string}/[flags] [count]
                        For each line in [range] replace a match of {pattern}
                        with {string}.
                        For the {pattern} see |pattern|.
                        {string} can be a literal string, or something
                        special; see |sub-replace-special|.
                        When [range] and [count] are omitted, replace in the
                        current line only.  When [count] is given, replace in
                        [count] lines, starting with the last line in [range].
                        When [range] is omitted start in the current line.

Specifically:

When [count] is given, replace in count] lines, starting with the last line in [range].
When [range] is omitted start in the current line.

My plan was to run the substitution once, then repeat it using & as many times as needed. However, if I do :s/pattern/string 1, unless the pattern exists in the current line, the substitution cannot find the pattern. I can only conclude I misunderstood the wording.

What is the best way to achieve what I want?

Answer 1

The default range for :substitute is ., the current line.

The simplest way to run a substitute that cannot fail is to use the e flag.

If you want to instead substitute the first occurrence after the cursor, I suggest

:/pattern/substitute//replace/flags

Alternately, if you really can't use :%substitute and you want behavior like the c flag, try searching /pattern, using cgn to put in the replacement, and then using n to navigate and . to repeat the change. (This is nice because, if you already know the next occurrence needs changed, you can skip the n and just press ..)