How can I paste a defvar into the minibuffer?

Question

I've written a regular expression to transform Markdown links into Org Mode links and I've stored it into a variable.

(defvar markdown-link-to-org-regexp "s/\[\(.+\)\](\(.+\))/[[\2][\1]]")

I'm using Doom and Evil mode so next time I type : so I go to the minibuffer I'd like to bring that string into the minibuffer. Is there an easy way to do it?

Answer 1

Define an interactive function (aka command), which inserts this string. Then put this function on a key binding.

(defun my-insert-regex ()
  (interactive)
  (insert (format "%S" markdown-link-to-org-regexp)))

(define-key global-map (kbd "C-c i") #'my-insert-regex)

When doing M-: you then just have to press C-c i to insert this string at the prompt.

Note, that your regex is eventualy wrong and needs more escape characters. re-builder can help you construct this regex.

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Second option:

This M-: promt normaly supports a history. You just need to type or paste it once, then you can retrieve former inputs with <up> and <down> keys. C-r searches backwards in the history. (C-r maybe has a different keybinding in Doom, Evil).

Answer 2

I don't understand your use case. You can copy text and paste (yank) text into the minibuffer, as @NickD pointed out in a comment. If the text isn't in the kill ring, but is actually stored in a file, then you don't need to invoke the minibuffer to run it. You can wrap it in a function and run it directly:

(defun my-regex-set ()
  (interactive)
  (defvar markdown-link-to-org-regexp "s/\[\(.+\)\](\(.+\))/[[\2][\1]]"))

With this function defined, you can call it with M-x my-regex-set, or you can bind it to a key combo.