How to replace ~ (tilde) in vim

Question

I have a string with a ~ in it and using the expression

Example:

hi~how~are~you

:%s/~/ /g

This doesn't seem to work any ideas?

Answer 1

The symbol ~ matches the previous substitute string (see :help /~), so you need to prefix it with a backslash:

:%s/\~/ /g

Answer 2

You just need to escape it with a backslash:

:%s/\~/ /g