How to search for one of two similar strings in Vim?

Question

This is a pretty simple regex question, I think. In Vim, if I want do a search that matches planA or planB, I know that I can do this:

/plan[AB]

This works because the regex allows for either A or B as its set of characters.

But how can I specify one of two complete strings? For example, planetAwesome or planetTerrible?

This will match both of these, along with planetAnythingHereAsLongAsItsJustLetters:

planet\([a-zA-Z]*\)

But how can I match only strings that match planetAwesome or planetTerrible exactly?

Answer 1

/planet\(Awesome\|Terrible\)

To see the relevant documentation, issue :help /, and scroll down to the section “The definition of a pattern”.

Answer 2

To add to Gilles' answer, you might want to add a few things in there:

/\<planet\(Awesome\|Terrible\)\>

\< marks the beginning of a 'word' (essentially alphanumerics)
\> marks the end of a 'word' (essentially alphanumerics)