How to search for selected text in Vim?

"The following sequence will do what you want, given an already selected block of text:

y (yank the selected text, into the "" register by default)
/ (enter search mode)
(\ V) (optional, enter ""very no magic"" mode*)
Ctrl+r "" (insert text from "" register)
Enter (Engage!)

(*) ""very no magic"" mode interprets the following text as plain text instead of as a regex. note however that \ and / are still special and will have to be handled in other ways. If the text does not have any characters considered special, you can skip this step.

Source: Vim Tips Wiki"

"I never felt the need for such a feature but, considering you can find a need for any feature on Vim, I think this from the Vim Wiki should help:

vnoremap // y/\V<C-R>=escape(@"",'/\')<CR><CR>

I didn't test it but, looking at the code, it seems to be exactly what you're searching for."

"The other answers here break p paste, since they override the unnamed register "". Here is a solution that doesn't have this problem:
vnoremap ml :<c-u>let temp_variable=@""<CR>gvy:<c-u>let @/='\V<C-R>=escape(@"",'/\')<CR>'<CR>:let @""=temp_variable<CR>:<c-u>set hlsearch<CR>

This solution also doesn't jump to the next instance of the pattern, which I find disruptive if it is out of frame in the current window."

In my configurations on two separate machines, if I select text and then hit / it automatically searches for the selected text.

"This solution empowers your vim search visually selected context even with multiline and escape characters.

Add the following code in you .vimrc, and search your visually selected content by //. You can also globally substitute the selected content by /s. Or Locally substitute the selected context by // first, and then visually select a region and :'<,'>s//{new_text}.

set incsearch
set hlsearch
set ignorecase
function GetVisualSelection()
let raw_search = @""
let @/=substitute(escape(raw_search, '\/.*$^~[]'), ""\n"", '\\n', ""g"")
endfunction
xnoremap // """"y:call GetVisualSelection()<bar>:set hls<cr>
if has('nvim')
set inccommand=nosplit
xnoremap /s """"y:call GetVisualSelection()<cr><bar>:%s/
else
xnoremap /s """"y:call GetVisualSelection()<cr><bar>:%s//
endif

The above configuration is only about searching. For all my vim configuration, please visit .vimrc"