How to find the 3rd occurrence of a pattern on a line

Question

Today I had to align a table at only the first multiple spaces on a line.

p.e.

    move window     three lines     down  
<         


        

Answer 1

I don't know if it fits your needs, but you can search that way :

1. Place your cursor at the beginning line
2. Type 3 / pattern Return

It place the cursor on the 3rd occurrence of the next matching line (highlighting all occurrences)

You can also macro :

qa+3nq

then @a to go to the next line 3rd occurence