[search] How do you make Vim unhighlight what you searched for?

I search for "nurple" in a file. I found it, great. But now, every occurrence of "nurple" is rendered in sick black on yellow. Forever.

Forever, that is, until I search for something I know won't be found, such as "asdhfalsdflajdflakjdf" simply so it clears the previous search highlighting.

Can't I just hit a magic key to kill the highlights when I'm done searching?

I think this answer in "Vim clear last search highlighting" is better:

:let @/ = ""

Also, if you want to have a toogle and be sure that the highlight will be reactivate for the next time you search something, you can use this

nmap <F12> :set hls!<CR>
nnoremap / :set hls<CR>/

" Make double-<Esc> clear search highlights
nnoremap <silent> <Esc><Esc> <Esc>:nohlsearch<CR><Esc>

I have this in my .vimrc:

nnoremap ; :set invhlsearch<CR>

This way, ; will toggle search highlighting. Normally, the ; key repeats the latest t/T/f/F command, but I never really used that functionality. I find this setting much more useful, because I can change search highlighting on and off very quickly and can easily get a sense of where my search results are, at a glance.

I think the best answer is to have a leader shortcut:

<leader>c :nohl<CR>

Now whenever you have your document all junked up with highlighted terms, you just hit , + C (I have my leader mapped to a comma). It works perfectly.

Then I prefer this:

map  <F12> :set hls!<CR>
imap <F12> <ESC>:set hls!<CR>a
vmap <F12> <ESC>:set hls!<CR>gv

And why? Because it toggles the switch: if highlight is on, then pressing F12 turns it off. And vica versa. HTH.

I think the best answer is to have a leader shortcut:

<leader>c :nohl<CR>

Now whenever you have your document all junked up with highlighted terms, you just hit , + C (I have my leader mapped to a comma). It works perfectly.

" Make double-<Esc> clear search highlights
nnoremap <silent> <Esc><Esc> <Esc>:nohlsearch<CR><Esc>

Then I prefer this:

map  <F12> :set hls!<CR>
imap <F12> <ESC>:set hls!<CR>a
vmap <F12> <ESC>:set hls!<CR>gv

And why? Because it toggles the switch: if highlight is on, then pressing F12 turns it off. And vica versa. HTH.

Append the following line to the end of your .vimrc to prevent highlighting altogether:

set nohlsearch

Also, if you want to have a toogle and be sure that the highlight will be reactivate for the next time you search something, you can use this

nmap <F12> :set hls!<CR>
nnoremap / :set hls<CR>/

I search so often that I've found it useful to map the underscore key to remove the search highlight:

nnoremap <silent> _ :nohl<CR>

            *:noh* *:nohlsearch*
:noh[lsearch]       Stop the highlighting for the 'hlsearch' option.  It
            is automatically turned back on when using a search
            command, or setting the 'hlsearch' option.
            This command doesn't work in an autocommand, because
            the highlighting state is saved and restored when
            executing autocommands |autocmd-searchpat|.
            Same thing for when invoking a user function.

I found it just under :help #, which I keep hitting all the time, and which highlights all the words on the current page like the current one.

I have this in my .vimrc:

nnoremap ; :set invhlsearch<CR>

This way, ; will toggle search highlighting. Normally, the ; key repeats the latest t/T/f/F command, but I never really used that functionality. I find this setting much more useful, because I can change search highlighting on and off very quickly and can easily get a sense of where my search results are, at a glance.

:noh (short for nohighlight) will do the trick.

There is hlsearch and nohlsearch. :help hlsearch will provide more information.

If you want to bind F12 to toggle it on/off you can use this:

map     <F12>   :nohlsearch<CR>
imap    <F12>   <ESC>:nohlsearch<CR>i
vmap    <F12>   <ESC>:nohlsearch<CR>gv

Append the following line to the end of your .vimrc to prevent highlighting altogether:

set nohlsearch

I search so often that I've found it useful to map the underscore key to remove the search highlight:

nnoremap <silent> _ :nohl<CR>

:noh (short for nohighlight) will do the trick.

/lkjasdf has always been faster than :noh for me.

There is hlsearch and nohlsearch. :help hlsearch will provide more information.

If you want to bind F12 to toggle it on/off you can use this:

map     <F12>   :nohlsearch<CR>
imap    <F12>   <ESC>:nohlsearch<CR>i
vmap    <F12>   <ESC>:nohlsearch<CR>gv

            *:noh* *:nohlsearch*
:noh[lsearch]       Stop the highlighting for the 'hlsearch' option.  It
            is automatically turned back on when using a search
            command, or setting the 'hlsearch' option.
            This command doesn't work in an autocommand, because
            the highlighting state is saved and restored when
            executing autocommands |autocmd-searchpat|.
            Same thing for when invoking a user function.

I found it just under :help #, which I keep hitting all the time, and which highlights all the words on the current page like the current one.

Append the following line to the end of your .vimrc to prevent highlighting altogether:

set nohlsearch

/lkjasdf has always been faster than :noh for me.

            *:noh* *:nohlsearch*
:noh[lsearch]       Stop the highlighting for the 'hlsearch' option.  It
            is automatically turned back on when using a search
            command, or setting the 'hlsearch' option.
            This command doesn't work in an autocommand, because
            the highlighting state is saved and restored when
            executing autocommands |autocmd-searchpat|.
            Same thing for when invoking a user function.

I found it just under :help #, which I keep hitting all the time, and which highlights all the words on the current page like the current one.

I add the following mapping to my ~/.vimrc

map e/ /sdfdskfxxxxy

And in ESC mode, I press e/

There is hlsearch and nohlsearch. :help hlsearch will provide more information.

If you want to bind F12 to toggle it on/off you can use this:

map     <F12>   :nohlsearch<CR>
imap    <F12>   <ESC>:nohlsearch<CR>i
vmap    <F12>   <ESC>:nohlsearch<CR>gv

Then I prefer this:

map  <F12> :set hls!<CR>
imap <F12> <ESC>:set hls!<CR>a
vmap <F12> <ESC>:set hls!<CR>gv

And why? Because it toggles the switch: if highlight is on, then pressing F12 turns it off. And vica versa. HTH.

/lkjasdf has always been faster than :noh for me.

:noh (short for nohighlight) will do the trick.

I think this answer in "Vim clear last search highlighting" is better:

:let @/ = ""

There is hlsearch and nohlsearch. :help hlsearch will provide more information.

If you want to bind F12 to toggle it on/off you can use this:

map     <F12>   :nohlsearch<CR>
imap    <F12>   <ESC>:nohlsearch<CR>i
vmap    <F12>   <ESC>:nohlsearch<CR>gv

            *:noh* *:nohlsearch*
:noh[lsearch]       Stop the highlighting for the 'hlsearch' option.  It
            is automatically turned back on when using a search
            command, or setting the 'hlsearch' option.
            This command doesn't work in an autocommand, because
            the highlighting state is saved and restored when
            executing autocommands |autocmd-searchpat|.
            Same thing for when invoking a user function.

I found it just under :help #, which I keep hitting all the time, and which highlights all the words on the current page like the current one.

Append the following line to the end of your .vimrc to prevent highlighting altogether:

set nohlsearch

:noh (short for nohighlight) will do the trick.