Search with Visual Select in VIM?

Question

I want to

• Select a word with VISUAL mode
• Press a key to search for the selected word

Answer 1

This has been explained in Search for selection in vim.

1. Select the text using a visual selection, e.g. v
2. Yank it, y
3. Search, /
4. Paste the last yanked text using <C-r>0 (Ctrlr+0)
   Actually inserts the content from register 0, see :h i_ctrl-r (thanks to romainl in the comments)

Another example is using the command line:

1. Select the text using a visual selection, e.g. v
2. Yank it, y
3. Enter command-line mode with editing an Ex command, q/
4. Paste yanked text, p, and search by pressing Enter

In short: yq/p<Enter>

Answer 2

Oh, mate, actually you can use the mighty Visual Search originated by the author of the book Practical Vim. It's very lightweight!

Simply add following stuff into your vimrc,

xnoremap * :<C-u>call <SID>VSetSearch()<CR>/<C-R>=@/<CR><CR>
xnoremap # :<C-u>call <SID>VSetSearch()<CR>?<C-R>=@/<CR><CR>

function! s:VSetSearch()
    let temp = @s
    norm! gv"sy
    let @/ = '\V' . substitute(escape(@s, '/\'), '\n', '\\n','g')
    let @s = temp
endfunction

Visual select the content you want to do search, then press the star key *, Voila !