How do you make Vim unhighlight what you searched for?

Question

I search for "nurple" in a file. I found it, great. But now, every occurrence of "nurple" is rendered in sick black on yellow. Forever.

Forever, that is, until I search for something I know won't be found, such as "asdhfalsdflajdflakjdf" simply so it clears the previous search highlighting.

Can't I just hit a magic key to kill the highlights when I'm done searching?

Definitely a duplicate of https://stackoverflow.com/questions/657447/vim-clear-last-search-highlighting and should be closed to direct people there — Ben Creasy, Apr 22 '17 at 21:02
@BenCreasy why would one call an older post a duplicate of a newer one? — Ruslan, Jul 09 '17 at 10:19
@Ruslan that one has nearly 10 times as many upvotes and they're both pretty old ('08 and '09) — Ben Creasy, Jul 09 '17 at 17:11
Vim killing me with this one. I keep typing nohi, then when it doesnt work I type set nohi, etc. And everytime I need to google. But nohl works o_O. yup Im a noob x) — brat, May 14 '20 at 19:40

score 366 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 22 '22 at 04:53

366

:noh (short for nohighlight) will temporarily clear the search highlight. The next search will still be highlighted.

edited Feb 22 '22 at 04:53

TankorSmash

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answered Sep 19 '08 at 03:08

Lee H

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@kmarks2 see you next leap year, I guess? – user1610406 Mar 19 '16 at 00:33
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Just clarifying @steamer25's comment. `:set nohlsearch` turns off search highlighting completely `:nohlsearch` or `:noh` will clear the current highlight, but leave you in hlsearch mode for the next search. – Hovis Biddle Mar 25 '16 at 16:53

score 188 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 19 '08 at 03:09

188

Just put this in your .vimrc

" <Ctrl-l> redraws the screen and removes any search highlighting.
nnoremap <silent> <C-l> :nohl<CR><C-l>

answered Sep 19 '08 at 03:09

Lucas S.

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Oooh, that's a goodie. I've been using /@@ which works as long as there's no @@ in my files. I must modify my vimrc NOW! – paxdiablo Sep 19 '08 at 03:24
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This is great, cured a lot of my headaches! I think ,it's better to use the full command in vimrc (:nohlsearch) to avoid conflicts in future. – Amit Feb 18 '09 at 20:46
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c :nohl is a better option, I think. – Daniel Miessler Nov 08 '13 at 18:24
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@trillions - ctrl-l will only work if you start vim after editing .vimrc as shown. – Ted Hopp Nov 14 '13 at 18:15
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Thats what I had been looking for even after 6 years. May be too late. :) – skjoshi Feb 04 '15 at 09:46
@trillions Or if you do `:source %` in your current Vim session, then it will reload your .vimrc / init.vim (for NeoVim). – Benjamin R Dec 24 '17 at 23:57
I've tried this code and run `source vimrc` but then it gives me `Unmatched ".` error. Any ideas how to fix this? – Lou Aug 17 '20 at 11:01

score 88 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 08 '14 at 16:18

88

/lkjasdf has always been faster than :noh for me.

edited Aug 08 '14 at 16:18

the Tin Man

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answered Sep 19 '08 at 03:15

jon

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Doing this in front of someone who knew Vim better than I did is how I learned about :nohls. – Alex M Sep 19 '08 at 03:32
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That's gross! It adds `lkjasdf` to your search history. – nelstrom Nov 08 '13 at 18:12
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then make `:noh` faster for you: `nnoremap h :noh` – Vince Aug 20 '15 at 20:53
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Can't you just program vim to never include `lkjasdf` in the search history? Though, no, wait, that [would be more of an Emacs solution](https://xkcd.com/1172/)... – leftaroundabout Oct 13 '15 at 13:40
i came to the same conclusion, years ago, thanks mate – Andrzej Rehmann Jan 24 '16 at 17:54
Yeah, I used to do ``/` `` (without the space), but then I found that some people start quotations with two backticks... So at the end of the day, `:noh` is the ultimate solution. – Ruslan Jul 09 '17 at 10:11

score 36 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 09 '13 at 14:38

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" Make double-<Esc> clear search highlights
nnoremap <silent> <Esc><Esc> <Esc>:nohlsearch<CR><Esc>

answered Nov 09 '13 at 14:38

Andy Lester

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Why is this not higher rated, this is simpler and more intuitive than a lot of the methods above. – Emmanuel M. Smith Sep 23 '16 at 14:13
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Love this! Thanks! – Adam Mar 04 '18 at 10:05
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Two questions: 1. why is the 2nd necessary in the replacement? 2. do you know how to (temporarily) disable the escape bell for this? – Keith Devens May 30 '18 at 04:51

score 20 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 08 '14 at 16:17

20

Then I prefer this:

map  <F12> :set hls!<CR>
imap <F12> <ESC>:set hls!<CR>a
vmap <F12> <ESC>:set hls!<CR>gv

And why? Because it toggles the switch: if highlight is on, then pressing F12 turns it off. And vica versa. HTH.

edited Aug 08 '14 at 16:17

the Tin Man

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answered Sep 19 '08 at 06:02

Zsolt Botykai

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This can also be accomplished with the "invhlsearch" setting. – Max Cantor Sep 19 '08 at 13:22
I like this, but I think your `i` mapping would be better with `gi` instead of `a`. Either that or `:set hls!`. – DJMcMayhem May 04 '16 at 16:13
but `F12` is my yakuake key :( – naught101 Jul 22 '16 at 02:35
@MaxCantor it looks like `invANYSETTING` is the same as `ANYSETTING!`. – TankorSmash Feb 22 '22 at 04:55

score 16 · Answer 6 · edited Nov 16 '12 at 22:34

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Append the following line to the end of your .vimrc to prevent highlighting altogether:

set nohlsearch

edited Nov 16 '12 at 22:34

Dave Jarvis

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answered Sep 19 '08 at 03:12

Daniel Bruce

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score 10 · Answer 7 · edited Aug 08 '14 at 16:20

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            *:noh* *:nohlsearch*
:noh[lsearch]       Stop the highlighting for the 'hlsearch' option.  It
            is automatically turned back on when using a search
            command, or setting the 'hlsearch' option.
            This command doesn't work in an autocommand, because
            the highlighting state is saved and restored when
            executing autocommands |autocmd-searchpat|.
            Same thing for when invoking a user function.

I found it just under :help #, which I keep hitting all the time, and which highlights all the words on the current page like the current one.

edited Aug 08 '14 at 16:20

the Tin Man

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answered Sep 19 '08 at 03:10

Kent Fredric

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On a side note, it's weird that one has to :noh to turn off search highlighting while instead of :hlsearch one has to set hlsearch to turn it on again. (I guess I should't be surprised at vim "weirdiness"...) – Marcello Romani Feb 12 '15 at 13:21

score 4 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 19 '08 at 06:59

4

I search so often that I've found it useful to map the underscore key to remove the search highlight:

nnoremap <silent> _ :nohl<CR>

answered Sep 19 '08 at 06:59

score 4 · Answer 9 · edited Jun 24 '19 at 13:55

4

I think the best answer is to have a leader shortcut:

<leader>c :nohl<CR>

Now whenever you have your document all junked up with highlighted terms, you just hit , + C (I have my leader mapped to a comma). It works perfectly.

edited Jun 24 '19 at 13:55

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 08 '13 at 18:26

Daniel Miessler

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`map c :nohl` would be what you need in vimrc. – tsg Jul 30 '15 at 08:53

score 3 · Answer 10 · edited Jun 24 '19 at 13:55

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I have this in my .vimrc:

nnoremap ; :set invhlsearch<CR>

This way, ; will toggle search highlighting. Normally, the ; key repeats the latest t/T/f/F command, but I never really used that functionality. I find this setting much more useful, because I can change search highlighting on and off very quickly and can easily get a sense of where my search results are, at a glance.

edited Jun 24 '19 at 13:55

Peter Mortensen

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answered Sep 19 '08 at 13:21

Max Cantor

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score 3 · Answer 11 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

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I think this answer in "Vim clear last search highlighting" is better:

:let @/ = ""

edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

Community

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answered Apr 02 '14 at 09:46

nocache

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`nnoremap :let @/=""` – jackcogdill Aug 05 '17 at 00:26

score 3 · Answer 12 · edited Aug 08 '14 at 16:19

3

There is hlsearch and nohlsearch. :help hlsearch will provide more information.

If you want to bind F12 to toggle it on/off you can use this:

map     <F12>   :nohlsearch<CR>
imap    <F12>   <ESC>:nohlsearch<CR>i
vmap    <F12>   <ESC>:nohlsearch<CR>gv

edited Aug 08 '14 at 16:19

the Tin Man

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answered Sep 19 '08 at 03:12

Jeffrey Vanneste

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score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jul 25 '14 at 08:59

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Also, if you want to have a toogle and be sure that the highlight will be reactivate for the next time you search something, you can use this

nmap <F12> :set hls!<CR>
nnoremap / :set hls<CR>/

answered Jul 25 '14 at 08:59

Guillaume

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score -1 · Answer 14 · answered May 01 '14 at 21:27

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I add the following mapping to my ~/.vimrc

map e/ /sdfdskfxxxxy

And in ESC mode, I press e/

answered May 01 '14 at 21:27

Aman Jain

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How do you make Vim unhighlight what you searched for?

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