The curious case of Vim search

In Vim, search commands can be case-sensitive, case-insensitive, and well... they can be a little more complicated. Luckily there are only two options we need to understand: 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase'.

The 'ignorecase' option

'ignorecase' 'ic' 'noignorecase' 'noic'

To ignore case in searches, turn on the 'ignorecase' option:

:set ignorecase

/fizz

|fizz| |FIZZ| |fIzZ| |FiZZ|
|fizz| |FIZZ| |fIzZ| |FiZZ|

To make searches case-sensitive turn the 'ignorecase' option off:

:set noignorecase

/fizz

|fizz| FIZZ fIzZ FiZZ
|fizz| FIZZ fIzZ FiZZ

Typed search flags can overrule options

When the \c flag is used in a search pattern, the whole pattern is handled as though 'ignorecase' is on and the actual value of 'ignorecase' is ignored. In other words the \c flag means ignore case in search patterns.

/fizz\c

|fizz| |FIZZ| |fIzZ| |FiZZ|
|fizz| |FIZZ| |fIzZ| |FiZZ|

When the \C flag (uppercase) is used in a search pattern, the whole pattern is handled as though 'ignorecase' is off and the actual value of 'ignorecase' is ignored. In other words make search patterns case-sensitive.

/fizz\C

|fizz| FIZZ fIzZ FiZZ
|fizz| FIZZ fIzZ FiZZ

Typed substitution flags can overrule options

:[range]s[ubstitute]/{pattern}/{string}/[flags]

When the i flag is used in a substitution command, the search pattern is handled as though 'ignorecase' is on and the actual value of 'ignorecase' is ignored. In other words the i flag means ignore case in search patterns.

:%s/foo/bar/gi

foo FOO fOO    ->    bar bar bar
foo FOO fOO    ->    bar bar bar

When the I flag (uppercase) is used in a substitution command, the search pattern is handled as though 'ignorecase' is off and the actual value of 'ignorecase' is ignored. In other words make search patterns case-sensitive.

:%s/foo/bar/gI

foo FOO fOO    ->    bar FOO fOO
foo FOO fOO    ->    bar FOO fOO

{% include tip.html content="The g flag in substitution commands tells the command to replace all occurrences in the line. Without this argument, replacement occurs only for the first occurrence in each line." %}

The 'smartcase' option

'smartcase' 'scs' 'nosmartcase' 'noscs'

The 'smartcase' option overrules the 'ignorecase' option if the search pattern contains upper case characters. It's only used when the search pattern is typed and 'ignorecase' option is on. For example, it's used for the commands "/", "?", "n", "N", ":g" and "😒". It's not used for "*", "#".

When 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' are both on, lower case search patterns are handled as though 'ignorecase' is on. In other words ignore case in the search pattern.

:set ignorecase
:set smartcase

/fizz

|fizz| |FIZZ| |fIzZ| |FiZZ|
|fizz| |FIZZ| |fIzZ| |FiZZ|

When 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' are both on, search patterns that contain upper case characters are handled as though 'ignorecase' is off. In other words the search pattern is case-sensitive.

/fIzZ

fizz FIZZ |fIzZ| FiZZ
fizz FIZZ |fIzZ| FiZZ

Summary

Turning on 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' makes case-sensitive and case-insensitive searches a cinch. To ignore case, use lower case, otherwise use at least one upper case character. And if you really need to do a case-sensitive lower case search use the appropriate flags: /fizz\C, :%s/foo/bar/gI.