Finding out what number occurance of a matching pattern is under your cursor?

Question

I know that if you press n you can hop to the next occurrence of a matching pattern, and that if you want to go to the previous match, you press N.

But if my cursor is already in the middle of a match, how do I tell what number match that is from the top of the document?

Answer 1

You can use the n flag with the substitution command.

:%s/set//gn

Or use the current search pattern via :%s///gn.

You can also use :vimgrep and the quickfix list. Search for your pattern via:

:vimgrep/set/ %

This searches the current file, %, and adds the matches to the quickfix list. Then you can move through the quickfix list via :cnext or :cprevious. Upon moving through the quickfix list text will display at the bottom showing something like this (4 of 10). By using the :copen command a window showing the quickfix results will open. Move to the pattern via pressing <cr> on a quickfix item.

However I prefer to use a plugin for this. vim-indexed-search gives you a message in the command line such as:

2 of 32 matches

This will tell what number match that is from the top of the document.

Answer 2

You can do this with one command :

:1,.s/<C-r><C-w>//gn

Decomposing :

:1,.s/      " start a substitute command from top of the document to current line
<C-r><C-w>  " paste the content of the word under the cursor
//          " replace with noting
gn          " don't actually replace

And in normal mode you can create a mapping for better use :

nnoremap <leader>n :1,.s/<C-r><C-w>//gn<CR>

See :h c_<C-R>_<C-W> for further references.

Edit If you want to rely on your previously entered search pattern, you can replace <C-R><C-W> by <C-R>/. As the / register is the search register, it contains the last search pattern.

Answer 3

This should just be a comment but as I don't have the reputation to comment here goes.

This won't be accurate for multi occurrences on the one line but

First
yiw
Then
:1,.s/<C-R>"//gn

To discombobulate

`yiw` will select the yank the word under the cursor  to register `"` .

`:1,.` does something from line 1 to the current line in command mode 

`<C-R>"` means Ctrl-r" which pastes the contents of register " to the command line

`s/<C-R>"//gn` searches for the value in `"` or `yes` and replaces nothing but counts matches. 

eg for the following with the cursor on a yes in line 5 the above will say 10 matches on 5 lines

1    yes no yes
2    yes no yes
3    yes no yes
4    yes no yes
5    yes no yes
6    yes no yes
7    yes no yes