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copied!<p>This is an intriguing question.</p> <p>I think @sixtyfootersdude has the right idea -- let Vim's syntax highlighting tell you what's a comment and what's not, and then search for matches within the non-comments.</p> <p>Let's start with a function that mimics Vim's built-in <code>search()</code> routine, but also provides a "skip" parameter to let it ignore some matches:</p> <pre><code>function! SearchWithSkip(pattern, flags, stopline, timeout, skip) " " Returns true if a match is found for {pattern}, but ignores matches " where {skip} evaluates to false. This allows you to do nifty things " like, say, only matching outside comments, only on odd-numbered lines, " or whatever else you like. " " Mimics the built-in search() function, but adds a {skip} expression " like that available in searchpair() and searchpairpos(). " (See the Vim help on search() for details of the other parameters.) " " Note the current position, so that if there are no unskipped " matches, the cursor can be restored to this location. " let l:matchpos = getpos('.') " Loop as long as {pattern} continues to be found. " while search(a:pattern, a:flags, a:stopline, a:timeout) > 0 " If {skip} is true, ignore this match and continue searching. " if eval(a:skip) continue endif " If we get here, {pattern} was found and {skip} is false, " so this is a match we don't want to ignore. Update the " match position and stop searching. " let l:matchpos = getpos('.') break endwhile " Jump to the position of the unskipped match, or to the original " position if there wasn't one. " call setpos('.', l:matchpos) endfunction </code></pre> <p>Here are a couple of functions that build on <code>SearchWithSkip()</code> to implement syntax-sensitive searches:</p> <pre><code>function! SearchOutside(synName, pattern) " " Searches for the specified pattern, but skips matches that " exist within the specified syntax region. " call SearchWithSkip(a:pattern, '', '', '', \ 'synIDattr(synID(line("."), col("."), 0), "name") =~? "' . a:synName . '"' ) endfunction function! SearchInside(synName, pattern) " " Searches for the specified pattern, but skips matches that don't " exist within the specified syntax region. " call SearchWithSkip(a:pattern, '', '', '', \ 'synIDattr(synID(line("."), col("."), 0), "name") !~? "' . a:synName . '"' ) endfunction </code></pre> <p>Here are commands that make the syntax-sensitive search functions easier to use:</p> <pre><code>command! -nargs=+ -complete=command SearchOutside call SearchOutside(<f-args>) command! -nargs=+ -complete=command SearchInside call SearchInside(<f-args>) </code></pre> <p>That was a long way to go, but now we can do stuff like this:</p> <pre><code>:SearchInside String hello </code></pre> <p>That searches for <code>hello</code>, but only within text that Vim considers a string.</p> <p>And (finally!) this searches for <code>double</code> everywhere except comments:</p> <pre><code>:SearchOutside Comment double </code></pre> <p>To repeat a search, use the <code>@:</code> macro to execute the same command repeatedly, like pressing <code>n</code> to repeat a search.</p> <p>(Thanks for asking this question, by the way. Now that I've built these routines, I expect to use them a lot.)</p>

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