Get count of string in vim

Question

To get the count of a string I usually do something a bit hack-ish such as the following:

1. Do a :%substitution on the string in question, such as:

   # how many times does the string "<Item " occur in the file?
   :%s/\<Item //g
   

2. Read the output:

   2009 substitutions on 2009 lines
   

3. Do an undo to go back to the original state of things.

   u

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Is there a more straightforward way to get the count of occurrences of a string in vim?

Answer 1

The idiomatic answer is

:%substitute/pat//gn

Mass mentions searchcount() which returns a dictionary of interesting items. You'll need to set the last search pattern, though (e.g., / or write to @/), or pass pattern in the options to the function.