Delete all text in line before/after highlighted search pattern

Question

I know in VIM how to search a string and delete the text till the start/end of line but I would like to know if it is also possible to delete all text in line before or after highlighted search pattern.

Answer 1

To delete the text before FOO on the same line:

:s/^.*\(FOO\)/\1/

Answer 2

If you want to do this across all lines and don't want to retype your search term I'd suggest the following:

:%s/.*\ze<Ctrl-r>///

What this does is:

• %s/: substitute across all lines in a file
• .*: match any character
• \ze: end matching so the rest of the pattern is not substituted
• <Ctrl-r>/: insert text from the '/' register (which is the search register)
• //: replace with nothing

Edit: Forgot about the after part. My suggestion to remove both at the same time would be:

:%s/.*<Ctrl-r>/.*/<Ctrl-r>//

Answer 3

From beginning of line to the beginning of highlighted search pattern: 0dn

From after end of highlighted search pattern to the end of line: $N//e<Enter>lD

These will work in most of the cases.