Emacs interactive regex replacement

Question

Suppose You have some text with words like these inside:

"foo" ... "bar" ... "file" ... "emacs"

and all you want to do is to replace " with ' '. I know it can be done only asking for the following replacement:

" -> ''

but suppose you would like to do it interactively and with regex, for more complicated case, how can it be done?

I explain myself better: I wish I could have a command, or a series of them, to work in this way:

Write a regex like "\\(.*?\\)" and see the results interactively (i.e. currently-visible matches are highlighted as you edit the regexp, and the highlighting is always updated as you make changes).
Once happy with the regexp, specify a replacement such as ' '\1' '
Interactively replace all matches

event_jr: I updated the question based on Luigi's answer, and rephrased that part in the process, as it did not appear to be relevant. — phils
– phils, Commented Jun 21, 2012 at 12:07

Dan · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-16 00:10:18Z

25

Finally I've found out!!!!! These are the steps to follow:

M-x isearch-forward-regexp
Insert your regex interactively. If you make a mistake you can use DEL or M-e and navigate through your regex to correct it.
Then after you've found what you want immediately press M-% and the replacement you like and start replacing.

So you can search and replace with regex in a total interactive and incremental fashion.

edited Jul 16, 2013 at 0:10

Dan

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answered Jun 21, 2012 at 11:21

Luigi Tiburzi

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3 Comments

High Performance Mark Over a year ago

Good find. On my installation isearch-forward-regexp is bound to C-M-s.

phils Over a year ago

M-x isearch-describe-bindings (or C-s C-h C-h b) is well worth reading.

Peter Gaultney Over a year ago

thank you for this. isearch-describe-bindings is also very helpful, though I wish I had some intuition about how I could have discovered that within Emacs. I continually find myself getting lost within Emacs's extensive documentation.

High Performance Mark · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-21 09:45:50Z

8

Does the command query-replace-regexp satisfy your requirements ? On most installations of Emacs it will be bound to C-M-%.

Since that doesn't satisfy OP's requirements, suggest looking also at re-builder. This function is not documented in the Emacs manual, or help system, it is just about documented in the Emacs Lisp manual.

edited Jun 21, 2012 at 9:45

answered Jun 21, 2012 at 8:43

High Performance Mark

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3 Comments

Luigi Tiburzi Over a year ago

query-replace-regexp it's not interactive, or better incremental. I'd like to have an incremental way to look at what it's matched

Luigi Tiburzi Over a year ago

It didn't work so for me, it's neither interactive nor incremental. Do you have any idea why? I've downloaded emacs through apt-get. By the way I've posted the solution that works fine in my case.

phils Over a year ago

(sorry, I'd just deleted my first comment while you were adding your reply). I hadn't understood that you wanted incremental match highlighting while you were building the regexp, which is why I was confused. I understand what you were after now.

Ian Mackinnon · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-17 12:23:54Z

8

Run M-x isearch-forward-regexp or C-M-s.
As you start typing a regex the first occurrence will be instantly highlighted. Attempting to move back through the regex using the cursor will cancel the search, so if you make a mistake you should use M-e to allow editing, make the change, then hit enter to continue the search.
When you're happy with the regex, press M-%, type a replacement string (or use the up key to access previously used replacement strings), then press RET to start interactive replacement.
For each occurrence, press y to replace once, n to skip, ! to replace all, RET to exit, or ? to see further options.
To repeat your last regexp search enter C-M-s then C-s.

Full details are in the manual page.

edited Oct 17, 2013 at 12:23

answered Oct 17, 2013 at 11:45

Ian Mackinnon

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2 Comments

Ian Mackinnon Over a year ago

I really just wanted to add some detail to Luigi's answer, but since my edit was declined I'm posting it as a separate answer.

Boris Stitnicky Over a year ago

May the force be with you. With love,

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