Vim - yank into search register

After pressing / to enter a search string, you can then use Ctrl-R and then type the letter representing the register that you want to use.

eg.

• First, "Ayw to yank a word into register A
• Then, / ^R A to put the contents of register A into the search string.

If you did not use any register to store the yanked text vim uses 0 register. You can search for that by typing Ctrl-R 0 after /.

A more complicated example. Say that you want to search in another buffer for the text inside quotes which is under the cursor right now:

• You can do that with yi" (yank inner quote)
• Go to the buffer where you want to search
• Type /Ctrl-R 0

I'm using following code for that:

vnoremap <silent>* <ESC>:call VisualSearch('/')<CR>/<CR>
vnoremap <silent># <ESC>:call VisualSearch('?')<CR>?<CR>

    function! VisualSearch(dirrection)
        let l:register=@@
        normal! gvy
        let l:search=escape(@@, '$.*/\[]')
        if a:dirrection=='/'
            execute 'normal! /'.l:search
        else
            execute 'normal! ?'.l:search
        endif
        let @/=l:search
        normal! gV
        let @@=l:register
    endfunction

Searching for a selection:

if you want to first yank a section of a line, then use "v" and move with cursors until you have marked what you want, then press y for yank and now the selection is in register 0

you can then type /Ctrl-R 0

So basically an extended version of the # and * commands, right? It sounds like you want to define a custom operator (a command that expects a motion). I've never actually done this, but I did find a plugin which looks like it might make it easier to do so. There are some examples provided.