===== Search and Replace =====

==== Typical Syntax ====
  * :%s/SEARCH/REPLACEMENT/g
    * % - tells vim to search the entire file
    * g - tells vim to replace all instances on each line, instead of just the first

==== Metacharacters ====
|.  |any character except new line  |
|\s  |whitespace character 	|
|\S  |non-whitespace character  |
|\d  |digit 	  |
|\D  |non-digit  |
|\x  |hex digit 	  |
|\X  |non-hex digit  |
|\o  |octal digit 	  |
|\O  |non-octal digit  |
|\h  |head of word character (a,b,c...z,A,B,C...Z and _) 	  |
|\H  |non-head of word character  |
|\p  |printable character 	  |
|\P  |like \p, but excluding digits  |
|\w  |word character 	  |
|\W  |non-word character  |
|\a  |alphabetic character 	  |
|\A  |non-alphabetic character  |
|\l  |lowercase character 	  |
|\L  |non-lowercase character  |
|\u  |uppercase character 	  |
|\U  |non-uppercase character  |


==== clear search highlighting ====
  * :let @/=''

==== Newline Replace ====
  * using \n as a replacement will NOT break the lines as expected (\n can be used as the search pattern)
    * instead, type :%s/SEARCH/
    * at this point, press CTRL-V, Enter (you should now see :%s/SEARCH/^M
    * finish your pattern: :%s/SEARCH/^M/g (all SEARCH occurrences will be replaced with newlines, and lines WILL break)
    * tab can also be accomplished the same way, but \t works anyway
    * when using gvim (Windows), CTRL-V is probably mapped to paste from the clipboard; instead, use CTRL-Q the same way

===== Special Characters =====
Search results can be replaced with special characters like this:
  * type :%s/SEARCH/
  * press CTRL-V (CTRL-Q on windows); you now have the option to:
    * type the 3 digit decimal value for the character you want
    * type x then the 2 character hex value you want
    * type o then the 3 digit octal value you want
  * full example to replace all occurances of SEARCH with a vertical tab:<code>
:%s/SEARCH/
(press CTRL-V or CTRL-Q)
(press the letter o)
013/g
</code>
  * once the replace is done, you can move the cursor over the character and type 'ga' to see the decimal, hex, and octal values