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In Vim, if I want search for all variable names LX where X is a number, I can simply type /L\d. However, this doesn't seem to work with evil.
Is there another syntax for regular expressions in Evil mode, or will I have to fall back on some Emacs functionality for search and replace using regular expressions?
I am using spacemacs, and I am pretty clueless regarding most things in Emacs, happily staying in Evil mode all day :).
evil uses the Emacs regexp facilities under the hood. Unfortunately, Emacs does not appear to have a separate syntax
class for digits, and does not recognize the \d regexp class.
So, to match your variable named LX where X is a digit, it
looks like you're stuck with the clunky /L[0-9] or the even clunkier /L[[:digit:]].
Note that, in principle, it looks like you could use character
codes
as listed by describe-categories:
`\cc`
matches any character whose category is *c*. Here *c* is a
character that represents a category: thus, 'c' for Chinese
characters or 'g' for Greek characters in the standard
category table. You can see the list of all the currently
defined categories with `M-x describe-categories RET`. You can
also define your own categories in addition to the standard
ones using the `define-category` function (see Categories).
According to describe-categories, digits are category 6.
Hence, /L\c6 should work (although it doesn't for me, even
though other categories do). Still, you wouldn't be saving
yourself much awkward typing when compared to /L[0-9].
isearchor something likehelm-swooporswiper? The last two should be able to do what you want easily. If you want to use the normalisearchfunction but want to use a different regexp engine look at github.com/benma/visual-regexp-steroids.el