diff -r a5e62fa97eba Lib/idlelib/SearchEngine.py
--- a/Lib/idlelib/SearchEngine.py	Wed Jul 17 22:20:37 2013 -0400
+++ b/Lib/idlelib/SearchEngine.py	Wed Jul 17 23:24:52 2013 -0400
@@ -218,3 +218,8 @@
 def get_line_col(index):
     line, col = map(int, index.split(".")) # Fails on invalid index
     return line, col
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    from test import support; support.use_resources = ['gui']
+    import unittest
+    unittest.main('idlelib.idle_test.test_searchengine', verbosity=2, exit=False)
diff -r a5e62fa97eba Lib/idlelib/idle_test/mock_tk.py
--- a/Lib/idlelib/idle_test/mock_tk.py	Wed Jul 17 22:20:37 2013 -0400
+++ b/Lib/idlelib/idle_test/mock_tk.py	Wed Jul 17 23:24:52 2013 -0400
@@ -141,6 +141,12 @@
                 return None
             else:
                 index = self.tags['sel.last']
+        elif index == 'end-1c':
+            # need to implement a more flexible way for dealing with indices
+            # and modifier expressions
+            line = max(len(self.data) - 2, 1)
+            char = max(len(self.data[line]) - 1, 0)
+            return line, char
         line, char = index.split('.')
         line = int(line)
 
diff -r a5e62fa97eba Lib/idlelib/idle_test/test_searchengine.py
--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/Lib/idlelib/idle_test/test_searchengine.py	Wed Jul 17 23:24:52 2013 -0400
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+import unittest
+from test.support import requires
+from idlelib.idle_test.mock_tk import Text, Var
+import idlelib.SearchEngine as se
+import re
+
+class Dummy_searchengine(se.SearchEngine):
+    def __init__(self):
+        self.patvar = Var(True)         # search pattern
+        self.revar = Var(True)          # regular expression?
+        self.casevar = Var(True)        # match case?
+        self.wordvar = Var(True)        # match whole word?
+        self.wrapvar = Var(True)        # wrap around buffer?
+        self.wrapvar.set(1)             # (on by default)
+        self.backvar = Var(False)       # search backwards?
+
+searchengine = Dummy_searchengine()
+
+class SearchEngineTest(unittest.TestCase):
+
+    @classmethod
+    def setUpClass(cls):
+        cls.text = Text()
+        cls.searchengine = searchengine
+
+    def test_search_text(self):
+        testtext = (
+            "from string import Template\n"
+            "s = Template('$who likes $what')\n"
+            "s.substitute(who='tim', what='kung pao')\n"
+            "d = dict(who='tim')\n"
+            "Template('Give $who $100').substitute(d)\n"
+            "Template('$who likes $what').substitute(d)\n"
+            "Template('$who likes $what').safe_substitute(d)\n")
+
+        self.text.insert('1.0', testtext)
+        pat = re.compile("substitute")
+
+        # Search forward from cursor at 1.0
+        self.text.tag_add('insert', '1.0')
+        searchresult = self.searchengine.search_text(text=self.text, prog=pat)
+        # searchresult is a tuple in the form (lineno, matchobject)
+        self.assertEqual(searchresult[0], 3)            # test line match
+        self.assertEqual(searchresult[1].span()[0], 2)  # test column match
+
+        # Test that search wraps around to beginning of text
+        self.text.tag_add('insert', '7.38')
+        searchresult = self.searchengine.search_text(text=self.text, prog=pat)
+        self.assertEqual(searchresult[0], 3)
+        self.assertEqual(searchresult[1].span()[0], 2)
+
+        # Test that search doesn't wrap forward when wrapvar set to 0
+        searchengine.wrapvar.set(0)
+        self.text.tag_add('insert', '7.38')
+        searchresult = self.searchengine.search_text(text=self.text, prog=pat)
+        self.assertEqual(searchresult, None)
+
+        # Test that search doesn't wrap in reverse when wrapvar set to 0
+        searchengine.backvar.set(1)
+        self.text.tag_add('insert', '2.4')
+        searchresult = self.searchengine.search_text(text=self.text, prog=pat)
+        self.assertEqual(searchresult, None)
+        searchengine.wrapvar.set(1)
+
+        # Test that search reverses when backvar is set to 1
+        self.text.tag_add('insert', '6.5')
+        searchresult = self.searchengine.search_text(text=self.text, prog=pat)
+        self.assertEqual(searchresult[0], 5)
+        self.assertEqual(searchresult[1].span()[0], 27)
+
+        # Test that search wraps around backwards to end of text
+        self.text.tag_add('insert', '1.5')
+        searchresult = self.searchengine.search_text(text=self.text, prog=pat)
+        self.assertEqual(searchresult[0], 7)
+        self.assertEqual(searchresult[1].span()[0], 34)
+        searchengine.backvar.set(0)
+
+        # Test empty match with 'ok' flag set and 'string' on line 1 selected
+        self.text.tag_add('sel.first', '1.5')
+        self.text.tag_add('sel.last', '1.10')
+        searchengine.backvar.set(0)
+        pat = re.compile("\w*")
+        searchresult = self.searchengine.search_text(text=self.text,
+            prog=pat, ok=1)
+        self.assertEqual(searchresult[0], 1)
+        self.assertEqual(searchresult[1].span()[0], 5)
+
+        # Test empty match with 'ok' flag not set and 'string' selected
+        searchresult = self.searchengine.search_text(text=self.text, prog=pat)
+        self.assertEqual(searchresult[0], 1)
+        self.assertEqual(searchresult[1].span()[0], 10)
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    unittest.main(verbosity=2, exit=2)