Using Ack.vim on visual selection

Question

Currently I have this mapping in my ~/.vimrc

noremap <Leader>a :Ack <cword><cr>

which enables me to search for a word under the cursor.

I would like to search for a current visual selection instead, because sometimes words are not enough.

Is there a way I can send visual selection to ack.vim?

Jihad

Answer 1

You can write a visual-mode map that yanks the highlighted text and then pastes it verbatim (properly escaped) onto the vim command-line:

vnoremap <Leader>a y:Ack <C-r>=fnameescape(@")<CR><CR>

This solution uses the <C-r>= trick that allows you to enter a kind of second-level command-line, which allows you to enter any vimscript expression, which is then evaluated, and the result is stringified and pasted onto the (original, first-level) command-line where the cursor is.

A slight disadvantage of this approach is that it commandeers the unnamed register, which you may not want.

Limousin

A small tweak: instead of vnoremap, it's better to use xnoremap. The former also maps the keystrokes in "select" mode, which is usually used by snippet plugins. Read :help mapmode-x for details. – Merrick

@AndrewRadev, good idea, although the map as written would not work for select mode, because the leading y would overwrite the selection and start insert mode. I suppose it could be made to work by writing a separate map for select mode (smap) and prepending the map arg with <Esc>gv to get out of select mode without doing any damage and then getting into (regular) visual mode, where the remainder of the map can take effect. – Limousin

I meant that vnoremap would also map the keystrokes in select mode, and you probably don't want that. xnoremap would only map them in visual mode. Somewhat counterintuitively :). – Merrick

Aha, I just read the vim help, and right you are! When I read your comment I thought you'd meant "latter" when you said "former", but that was my mistake. It's funny, you basically made the exact point I tried to make in my response. – Limousin

Honestly, "latter" and "former" are some of the most confusing words in the English language. To this day, I still don't get who made them up. So yeah. – Merrick

I used this to do a vmap for :Rg (package fzf.vim) and it worked great. Finally, I can visually select text and search for it easily. Thank you! – Tangier

Answer 2

While bgoldst's answer should work just fine, you could also consider my fork of ack.vim: https://github.com/AndrewRadev/ack.vim

It comes with a working :Ack command in visual mode, and a few other extras that I've summarized at the top of the README.

Merrick

A fork from 2015 and the original Ack.vim still doesn't have visual mode. – Hauger

Answer 3

At the time of this writing this is the default behaviour of Ack.

Just do the following:

1. move your cursor on any word in normal mode (for instance, hit Esc button to enter in normal mode, you know...)
2. type :Ack with no argument
3. it will search for the word under the cursor

Usually I select text during a search in a file (for instance put cursor inside word and type * repeateadly) the type :Ack to look for that word in other files of the project.

Peppers

To be precise, this behaviour is not related to visual selection or search. Just put your cursor on any word in normal mode and use :Ack, and it will search for the word under the cursor. – Stay

@Pierre-AdrienBuisson thanks, I updated the answer adding your contribution. – Peppers