How to chain isearch-forward-symbol-at-point and query-replace-regexp into a single keybinding?

Question

I'm looking to create a keybinding that will perform the following shortcut:

• call isearch-forward-symbol-at-point
• call query-replace-regexp

It's basically a shortcut for the following key combo: M-s . then C-M $

Here is my attempt, but my elisp is rather weak:

(global-set-key (kbd "C-x r")
    (lambda ()
      (interactive)
      (query-replace-regexp (isearch-forward-symbol-at-point))))

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You should/cannot use the interactive commands isearch-forward-symbol-at-point and query-replace-regexp in that way to define a new function.

For an instance isearch-forward-symbol-at-point does not return the symbol at point and query-replace-regexp requires a TO argument if called non-interactively.

I think the following Elisp function comes very close to what you want. It starts a query-replace-regexp with the symbol at point as default regexp. You only need to input the replacement text, i.e., the new name.

(defun query-replace-symbol-at-point ()
  "Start `query-replace-regexp' with symbol at point as default."
  (interactive)
  (let ((sym (symbol-at-point)))
    (when sym
      (push (cons (format "\\_<%s\\_>" sym) "") query-replace-defaults)
      (call-interactively #'query-replace-regexp))))

Answer 2

This is the key binding that does what you want, out of the box: M-s . C-M-%.

• The M-s . part starts searching with isearch-forward-symbol-at-point.

• The C-M-% part starts query-replace-regexp, the current search string as the old text, to search for and replace.

(C-M-$ is undefined in isearch-mode-map (and the global map).)