Vim highlight regex

Question

I have a syntax highlight for cpp to highlight STL algorithms, one line is

syn keywork cppSTL find

My problem is that on a project that I am working, there are a number of classes with a method named find which are getting highlighted, and I want it only highlighted for STL calls.

So I decided to change the previous line to:

syn match cppSTL /[^.>:]\<find\>/ms=s+1
syn match cppSTL /\<std::find\>/ contains=cppScope
syn match cppScope /::/
hi clear cppScope

And it works most of the time. However if fails in this line:

vector<string>::iterator i = find(find(x.begin(), x.end(), val), x.end(), term);
                                  ^^^^

The first find is highlighted correctly, but the second fails. My limited knowledge of vim regex says it should match, but I can't figure out why it doesn't.

Answer 1

I got it!

The problem is that my regex required a char behind find, and inside the parenthesis, the open parenthesis had already been matched, invalidating my regex.

It works if I replace the first line with:

syn match cppSTL "[^.>:]\@<=\<find\>"

Answer 2

This might be what your looking for. It highlights all words find that are on a line that also contains a :: before it.

syn match cppSTL /\(::.*\)\@<=\<find\>/

If this isn't what you are asking for please tell me.