Fzf: Option to cycle between literal, reg-exp, and fuzzy matching when selecting

[jeetsukumaran]

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(Suggestion) Option to cycle between literal, reg-exp, and fuzzy matching when selecting.

I love fzf. And the "fuzzy" is, of course, is what makes it great. But sometimes it would be nice to have a more exact matching algorithm applied on the fly or on demand. E.g., when working with a project with lots of similar files, typing a few letters may get it filtered down to a some dozen (or hundred), but then after that it is often difficult to thin it out more due to the similarity of filenames. Being able to switch to literal of reg-exp matching would help a lot in cases like this.

The switch/cycling/toggling can be triggered by a Ctrl key (e.g., "CTRL-R") so as to disambiguate from standard filter/fuzzy search text.

Thank you for fzf!

[junegunn]

Hi, there is no plan for supporting mode switching, or regex mode. But you can already mix exact search terms and fuzzy terms by prefixing each term with ' character. I use it a lot.

fzzy 'exact

See:

• https://github.com/junegunn/fzf#search-syntax
• https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/issues/1265#issuecomment-382248569

[jeetsukumaran]

Oh, this is _excellent_, and does exactly what is needed. Thanks!