Learning the vi Editor, Sixth Edition

11.7. Extended Regular Expressions

Of all the clones, vim provides the richest set of regular expression matching facilities. Much of the descriptive text in the list below is borrowed from the vim documentation:

\|

Indicates alternation, house\|home.

\+

Matches one or more of the preceding regular expression.

\=

Matches zero or one of the preceding regular expression.

\{ n, m}

Matches n to m of the preceding regular expression, as much as possible. n and m are numbers between 0 and 32000; vim requires only the left brace to be preceded by a backslash, not the right brace.

\{ n}

Matches n of the preceding regular expression.

\{ n,}

Matches at least n of the preceding regular expression, as much as possible.

\{, m}

Matches 0 to m of the preceding regular expression, as much as possible.

\{}

Matches 0 or more of the preceding regular expression, as much as possible (same as *).

\{- n, m}

Matches n to m of the preceding regular expression, as few as possible.

\{- n}

Matches n of the preceding regular expression.

\{- n,}

Matches at least n of the preceding regular expression, as few as possible.

\{-, m}

Matches 0 to m of the preceding regular expression, as few as possible.

\i

Matches any identifier character, as defined by the isident option.

\I

Like \i, but excluding digits.

\k

Matches any keyword character, as defined by the iskeyword option.

\K

Like \k, but excluding digits.

\f

Matches any filename character, as defined by the isfname option.

\F

Like \f