What is the correct VIM regexp to search to get = but not ==?

Question

In the following code:

a = b = c == 1

I'd like to match on only the first two =, but not the == at the end.

I figured the pattern \\<=\\> would work since \\< matches beginning of word and \\> matches the end. But it doesn't. What's wrong with this pattern and what is the correct pattern?

Answer 1

vim supports lookarounds, so you can use a negative lookbehind and negative lookahead surrounding the =. This will match only the desired = and even = at the start or end of the line.

\(=\)\@<!=\(=\)\@!

Answer 2

You cannot use \\<=\\> because usually, the equals character is not a keyword character . You could fix that with :set iskeyword+== , but that may have side effects for navigating and syntax highlighting.

Answer 3

This regex should work:

[^=]=[^=]

It will break if you want to match single = at the beginning or at the end of line - but I figured this is not an issue for your patterns.