GVIM vimgrep in windows

Question

I am trying to replicate Notepad++ find in all files in GVim on windows. I found the following script for vimgrep which seems to find the word under the cursor in directories

map <F4> :execute "vimgrep /" . expand("<cword>") . "/j /**/*.c " <Bar> cw<CR>

I modified it to search always in a the root directory of my project. But it is not working. The project is under "c:\lion"

map < F4> :execute "vimgrep /" . expand("<cword>") . "/j {c:\lion\}/**/*.c " <Bar> cw<CR>

The following error is shown.

"{c:" Illegal file name
Cannot open file "{c:"

Answer 1

Drop the {...}, and just insert the path as-is, like you would on the command-line (a mapping is nothing more than a recorded macro). It's easier to use forward slashes; these work on Windows, too.

:map <F4> :execute "vimgrep /" . expand("<cword>") . "/j C:/lion/**/*.c " <Bar> cw<CR>

Maybe you've been confused by the :execute. There's another way (with c_CTRL-R_CTRL-W) to insert the current word, which avoids this:

:map <F4> :vimgrep /<C-r><C-w>/j C:/lion/**/*.c <Bar> cw<CR>

Also, you should use :noremap; it makes the mapping immune to remapping and recursion.