Vim find pattern unless it matches

Question

I have a space delimited set of hex values and want to find /[0-9a-f]\{2\} unless the value is 00. For example, if the buffer is

00 00 00 00 18 00 00 00

the pattern should match the 18 but not the white space or the 00.

Answer 1

This can be done with the following regular expression:

\x\{2}\(00\)\@<!

Explanation:

• \x: hex digit: [0-9A-Fa-f]
• \{2}: matches two of the preceding atom
• \(00\): an atom containing 00
• \@<! nothing, requires NO match behind

For more information, see:

• :help pattern.txt