Highlight only first match

Question

With Vim, I want to highlight only the first match of an expression.

For instance, in the following text I want to highlight only the first a :

bdjh abc olkd abc abc

How can I realize this ?

Answer 1

You can make it explicit

/^.\{-}\zsa

This does:

• ^ (match start of line)
• .\{-} (match as few characters as possible)
• \zs (start of match)
• a (your pattern)