Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition

Search and Replace

Search and replace definitely go together, like coffee and cream. Let's say you're working on a new software application and at the last possible moment, the Marketing Department decides to change the product's name.

Tere's a press release for Whirligig, an email service that periodically reminds you to make healthy lifestyle changes like exercising, drinking water, and taking vitamins. The level of harassment or, as the marketing department says, encouragement, can be set by the user. Whirligig isn't really the most descriptive name, so at the last minute the Marketing Department changes it to HealthBug.

Simple Search and Replace Operations

Assume you're in the situation we just described. You want to replace every occurrence of one string with another. You know that Whirligig is never correct, and there is absolutely no ambiguity about how you want to replace it. When you want to replace every instance of a given string, you can use a simple command that tells Emacs to do just that. Type M-x replace-string Enter, then type the search string and press Enter. Now type the replacement string and press Enter again. Emacs replaces all occurrences in the file from the cursor position onward. If you want to search and replace throughout the file, press M-< to go to the beginning of the file before typing this command. Here's a quick example of using replace-string.

Initial state:

Whirligig appears four times, but the cursor is positioned after the first instance. ...