How to call query-replace-regexp inside a function?

Question

I tend to use query-replace-regexp over an entire buffer rather than at the current position so I regularly use the sequence C-< (beginning-of-buffer), then C-r (query-replace-repexp).

I'd like to make another function bound to C-S-r (C-R) which does this for me. I thought that if I simply wrapped it all together such as:

(defun query-replace-regexp-whole-buffer ()
  "query-replace-regexp from the beginning of the buffer."
  (interactive)
  (beginning-of-buffer)
  (query-replace-regexp))

that this would be adequate, unfortunately though I'm getting some errors.

query-replace-regexp-whole-buffer: Wrong number of arguments: #[(regexp to-string &optional delimited start end) "Å Æ
Ç&  " [regexp to-string delimited start end perform-replace t nil] 10 1940879 (let ((common (query-replace-read-args (concat "Query replace" (if current-prefix-arg " word" "") " regexp" (if (and transient-mark-mode mark-active) " in region" "")) t))) (list (nth 0 common) (nth 1 common) (nth 2 common) (if (and transient-mark-mode mark-active) (region-beginning)) (if (and transient-mark-mode mark-active) (region-end))))], 0

I can't really see what I'm doing wrong, hopefully someone can help.

user4815162342 · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-10 12:28:39Z

3

When called from Lisp, query-replace-regexp expects to be passed regular expression and the intended replacement as arguments. If you want to emulate the questions asked when invoked interactively, you need to use call-interactively:

(defun query-replace-regexp-whole-buffer ()
  "query-replace-regexp from the beginning of the buffer."
  (interactive)
  (goto-char (point-min))
  (call-interactively 'query-replace-regexp))

Also note that one should never call beginning-of-buffer from Lisp code; it will do unnecessary work, such as pushing the mark and printing a message.

answered Aug 10, 2013 at 12:28

user4815162342

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1 Comment

rfcoder89 Over a year ago

Thanks for your help and also thats a good tip about not using beginning-of-buffer :)

Alex Ott · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-10 12:31:35Z

2

You need to read arguments yourself and pass them to query-replace-regexp... This could be done by extending your interactive, so function will look something like:

(defun query-replace-regexp-whole-buffer (regex to-string)
  "query-replace-regexp from the beginning of the buffer."
  (interactive "sRegex to search: \nsString to replace: ")
  (save-excursion
     (goto-char (point-min))
     (query-replace-regexp regex to-string)))

answered Aug 10, 2013 at 12:31

Alex Ott

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5 Comments

Alex Ott Over a year ago

just noticed another answer - this could be better for you, as you don't need to explicitly read arguments

rfcoder89 Over a year ago

Thanks for your help, this is also interesting to know how the interactive statement works. I may have to look at elisp in a bit more detail.

user4815162342 Over a year ago

save-excursion is a good idea, and so is showing the use of interactive. One downside compared to my answer is that you don't get the fancy prompting that query-replace-regexp performs interactively. (For the OP: use M-x find-function RET query-replace-regexp RET to navigate to the source of query-replace-regexp, and don't forget to install the elisp sources package if you haven't already.)

Alex Ott Over a year ago

yes, I thought about pointing to original source, but decided that it could be too complicated for author of question :-)

rfcoder89 Over a year ago

This is actually very useful to me since a lot of my regexp replaces are the same. Emacs is so helpful.

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