:%s/foo/bar/g
Find each occurrence of 'foo' (in all lines), and replace it with 'bar'.
:s/foo/bar/g
Find each occurrence of 'foo' (in the current line only), and replace it with 'bar'.
:%s/foo/bar/gc
Change each 'foo' to 'bar', but ask for confirmation first.
:%s/\<foo\>/bar/gc
Change only whole words exactly matching 'foo' to 'bar'; ask for confirmation.