How to use it
- Paste the text, then type what to find and what to replace it with.
- Set the options. The result and the number of replacements update as you type.
- Press Copy.
Options
- Match case: off by default, so “Cat”, “cat” and “CAT” are all found.
- Whole words only: the match must not have a letter, digit or underscore right before or after it.
- Regular expression: the search is a pattern. Characters such as
.,*,?and brackets have special meaning; without this option they are searched for literally.
Regular expression examples
| Find | Replace with | Effect |
|---|---|---|
(\d+)-(\d+)-(\d+) |
$3.$2.$1 |
2026-11-03 → 03.11.2026 |
\s+ |
a space | collapses runs of spaces and line breaks |
^ |
- |
puts “- “ at the start of every line |
\s+$ |
nothing | removes spaces at line ends |
Worked example
In the sample text, replacing “cat” with “dog” changes four places, including “category”, which becomes “dogegory”. With “Whole words only” on there are 3 replacements, and “category” stays as it is.
Tips
If the regular expression is invalid - an unclosed bracket, a lone backslash - the tool shows an error instead of a result. Replacements are made all at once in a single pass, so the replacement text is never searched again.