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vimvim-pluginvim-syntax-highlightingneovim

How to trigger end of search or nohlsearch was called

I have the following code inside my vimrc

hi CurrentWordUL cterm=underline gui=underline
hi Search cterm=underline ctermfg=124 gui=underline guifg=#af0000

augroup MyHighlighter
  autocmd!
  " autocmd User IncSearchEnter MatchHighlighter 0
  " autocmd User IncSearchExecute MatchHighlighter 1

  set updatetime=700
  autocmd CursorHold * if (get(g:, 'matchhl', 1) && (&ft !~ join(g:ft_blacklist, '\|')))
\ | silent! exe printf('match CurrentWordUL /\<%s\>/', expand('<cword>'))
\ | endif
  autocmd CursorMoved * if (get(g:, 'matchhl', 1) && (&ft !~ join(g:ft_blacklist, '\|')))
\ | silent! exe printf('match none')
\ | endif
augroup END

nnoremap <silent> <f4> :MatchHighlighter<CR>
command! -nargs=? MatchHighlighter
\  call ToggleSetMatchHL(
\  empty(<q-args>) ? !get(g:, 'matchhl', 1) : expand(<q-args>))

function! ToggleSetMatchHL(arg) abort
match none | diffupdate | syntax sync fromstart
let g:matchhl = a:arg
endfunction

The purpose of this is to highlight (underline) matching word under the cursor.

The issue I have is when I'm searching with /, ?, *, # etc. The matching highlight overwrite the search highlight.

Is there anyway I can know "end of search" (I don't know the definition of "end of search" but maybe someone can suggest something) or "nohlsearch" was called?

Thanks in advance.

Solution
    • If you switch from :match to :call matchadd(...), you can specify a {priority}. A negative one will put the highlighting below the search highlighting (which has prio 0; default is 10).
    • There's no event for "end of search". You could override all search-related commands (/, ?, *, etc); that would detect a start of search. For / and ?, you could define a cmap <CR> with a check of getcmdtype() =~# '[/?]' to detect the conclusion of a search. I wouldn't recommend this approach; the mappings may interfere with other plugins.
    • Instead of using :match (which is window-local, so the highlighting also behaves differently than the built-in search highlighting), you could automatically adapt the current search pattern (register /) instead. My SearchHighlighting plugin chooses this approach with its :SearchAutoHighlighting command. (The plugin page has links to many alternative plugins you may want to check out; I would prefer a well-maintained plugin over a custom code snippet in my ~/.vimrc.)