non-greedy multiline search in vim

Question

I am trying to search ruby file and find all methods (before autoreplacing them later). In vim, i use following regexp:

/\vdef.*(\n.*){-}end

However even though i use "{-}", it selects whole file's contents.

I don't understand what you want to match. How about if there is an `if ... end` condition inside a function? — Birei, Nov 01 '13 at 18:46
yes i'll modify regexp later accordingly (like add positive lookahead for another def or smth like that). what i need right now is way to search it non-greedily — Pavel K., Nov 01 '13 at 18:51

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 01 '13 at 18:54

13

vim uses \_. to include the newline character to the common ..

/\vdef\_.{-}end

answered Nov 01 '13 at 18:54

Birei

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 04 '15 at 19:30

8

In my version of Vim, you need to escape the {, as well as using \_. as other answers have said:

/def\_.\{-}end

answered Jun 04 '15 at 19:30

user2161673

jkshah · Answer 3 · 2013-11-01T19:05:34.860

5

Try following regex.

/\vdef(\n|.){-}end

.* was culprit in your case

edited Nov 01 '13 at 19:05

answered Nov 01 '13 at 18:59

jkshah

you can drop the `.*` after `def`. `\vdef(\n|.){-}end` would work just as well. – iruvar Nov 01 '13 at 19:08

3 Answers3