---
title: "Live Substitution In Neovim"
description: "Replacing text in vim can be quite frustrating especially since it doesn't have live feedback to what is changing. Today I was watching Josh Branchaud's..."
date: 2021-01-04
published: true
tags:
  - linux
  - vim
template: blog-post
---


Replacing text in vim can be quite frustrating especially since it doesn't have
live feedback to what is changing. Today I was watching Josh Branchaud's
Vim-Unalphabet series on Youtuve and realized that his vim was doing this and I
had to have it.

<https://twitter.com/_WaylonWalker/status/1346081617199198210>

## How to do it

I had to do a bit of searching and found a great post from [vimcasts](https://vimcasts.org/episodes/neovim-eyecandy/) that shows exactly how to get the live search and replace highlighting using `inccomand`

## :h inccommand

``` vim
'inccommand' 'icm' string (default "")
   global

 "nosplit": Shows the effects of a command incrementally, as you type.
 "split"  : Also shows partial off-screen results in a preview window.

 Works for |:substitute|, |:smagic|, |:snomagic|. |hl-Substitute|

 If the preview is too slow (exceeds 'redrawtime') then 'inccommand' is
 automatically disabled until |Command-line-mode| is done.

```

## Add this to your config

I believe that this is a neovim only feature, add it into your
`~/.config/nvim/init.vim` file. You can see it in my
[dotfiles](https://github.com/WaylonWalker/devtainer/blob/main/nvim/.config/nvim/settings.vim#L155)
as well.

``` vim
set inccommand=nosplit
```

## See it in Action

![example live
substitution](https://images.waylonwalker.com/nvim-live-substitute-inccommand.gif)

## The Video that inspired this

Check out Josh Branchaud's great series on the Vim-Unalphabet.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jMiYtXz2QA>