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20.9.4 Query Replace
- M-% string <RET> newstring <RET>
- M-x query-replace <RET> string <RET> newstring <RET>
Replace some occurrences of string with newstring.
- C-M-% regexp <RET> newstring <RET>
- M-x query-replace-regexp <RET> regexp <RET> newstring <RET>
Replace some matches for regexp with newstring.
If you want to change only some of the occurrences of ‘foo’ to
‘bar’, not all of them, then you cannot use an ordinary
replace-string
. Instead, use M-% (query-replace
).
This command finds occurrences of ‘foo’ one by one, displays each
occurrence and asks you whether to replace it. Aside from querying,
query-replace
works just like replace-string
. It
preserves case, like replace-string
, provided
case-replace
is non-nil
, as it normally is
(see section Replace Commands and Case). A numeric argument means consider
only occurrences that are bounded by word-delimiter characters.
C-M-% performs regexp search and replace (query-replace-regexp
).
It works like replace-regexp
except that it queries
like query-replace
.
These commands highlight the current match using the face
query-replace
. They highlight other matches using
lazy-highlight
just like incremental search (see section Incremental Search).
The characters you can type when you are shown a match for the string or regexp are:
- <SPC>
to replace the occurrence with newstring.
- <DEL>
to skip to the next occurrence without replacing this one.
- , (Comma)
to replace this occurrence and display the result. You are then asked for another input character to say what to do next. Since the replacement has already been made, <DEL> and <SPC> are equivalent in this situation; both move to the next occurrence.
You can type C-r at this point (see below) to alter the replaced text. You can also type C-x u to undo the replacement; this exits the
query-replace
, so if you want to do further replacement you must use C-x <ESC> <ESC> <RET> to restart (see section Repeating Minibuffer Commands).- <RET>
to exit without doing any more replacements.
- . (Period)
to replace this occurrence and then exit without searching for more occurrences.
- !
to replace all remaining occurrences without asking again.
- ^
to go back to the position of the previous occurrence (or what used to be an occurrence), in case you changed it by mistake or want to reexamine it.
- C-r
to enter a recursive editing level, in case the occurrence needs to be edited rather than just replaced with newstring. When you are done, exit the recursive editing level with C-M-c to proceed to the next occurrence. See section Recursive Editing Levels.
- C-w
to delete the occurrence, and then enter a recursive editing level as in C-r. Use the recursive edit to insert text to replace the deleted occurrence of string. When done, exit the recursive editing level with C-M-c to proceed to the next occurrence.
- e
to edit the replacement string in the minibuffer. When you exit the minibuffer by typing <RET>, the minibuffer contents replace the current occurrence of the pattern. They also become the new replacement string for any further occurrences.
- C-l
to redisplay the screen. Then you must type another character to specify what to do with this occurrence.
- C-h
to display a message summarizing these options. Then you must type another character to specify what to do with this occurrence.
Some other characters are aliases for the ones listed above: y, n and q are equivalent to <SPC>, <DEL> and <RET>.
Aside from this, any other character exits the query-replace
,
and is then reread as part of a key sequence. Thus, if you type
C-k, it exits the query-replace
and then kills to end of
line.
To restart a query-replace
once it is exited, use C-x
<ESC> <ESC>, which repeats the query-replace
because it
used the minibuffer to read its arguments. See section C-x ESC ESC.
See section Operating on Files, for the Dired Q command which performs query replace on selected files. See also Transforming File Names in Dired, for Dired commands to rename, copy, or link files by replacing regexp matches in file names.
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