Vim: How to search for more than one word in the same search?

Question

Is it possible to search within vim for more than one word?

For example: Let's say i'm inside vim and I press / in order to start a search for a certain word, is it possible to search for more than one word in the same search?

Answer 1

If you do this often, my SearchAlternatives plugin may be useful to you.

The plugin provides mappings and commands to add and subtract alternative branches to the current search pattern. Currently searching for "foo", but also want to find matches for "bar"? You could type /foo\|bar<CR> or /<C-R>/\|bar<CR>, but once you want to limit the search to whole \<words\> (like the * command), and juggle several alternatives, adding and dropping them as you search, this plugin is quicker than manually editing the search command-line (which you can still do).

Answer 2

Yes, you can have several branches in a search pattern:

/foo\|bar

See :help \|.

Answer 3

Use the OR operator

/first\|second