Questions tagged [search]
Questions about search mechanics inside of Emacs.
309
questions
55
votes
9
answers
13k
views
How do I find text across many open buffers?
Lets say I have 10 buffers open, and I want to find all occurrences of blah in all 10 buffers. How would I do this?
- 2,457
40
votes
5
answers
25k
views
What is the easiest way to search all useful files inside a single project?
What is the easiest way to search for a regexp throughout the contents all files in the current project, skipping files that are not useful?
Useless files are things like compiled files, imported ...
- 23.2k
29
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Match two spaces with incremental search
When searching using:
C-s SPC SPC
Also matches single spaces. I want to match exactly two space.
- 987
27
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Counsel M-x always shows "^"
I installed Counsel/Ivy/Swiper and so far everything works fine. But when I call counsel-M-x via key bind M-x an "^" char is always added. I have no clue why this is happening and how to get rid of it ...
- 373
23
votes
6
answers
5k
views
Getting number of occurrences, during incremental search (C-s / isearch-forward)
Inspired by modern browsers, I'd love to be able to see how many occurrences there are of some string, when I search for it – like the "10 of 37" at the top-right corner of the screenshot below.
...
- 890
21
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Only show lines containing phrase/regex
I would like to see all the lines from the current buffer, that contain some phrase, or match regex.
Example:
My buffer:
dam madam
madam
this is da
m a
dam 1
dam 2
dam pi
dam 321:)
is dam 2?
...
- 1,483
13
votes
7
answers
2k
views
How to search the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual?
Sometimes describe- or apropos- are not enough. How can I search the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual (C-h i m elisp) from within emacs?
- 4,096
13
votes
1
answer
814
views
Search for string ignoring new lines
I am used to writing files where paragraphs are split into several lines, e.g. with fill-column. When I search for a string (C-s) such as this is a long text, the search results would not return the ...
- 231
12
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Helm: search within buffer feature?
A pretty basic Helm question. What is the Helm window/command/feature that lets us search for text (preferably using regexp) within any type of buffer (i.e., including read-only such as w3m)?
In ...
- 1,088
11
votes
4
answers
143
views
How to convert a series of lines into a working HTML list?
Right now, this is a task I find a lot easier in something like gedit, because I can just replace "\n" (the line break) with "</li>\n<li>" and then I have a list.
One of the few little ...
- 215
11
votes
4
answers
5k
views
How to search in multiple files with Emacs without grep?
There is a folder with many sub-folders, files and I would like to search for a given piece of text in all of these files with Emacs on a Windows 10 machine. (I know about M-x grep, but it does not ...
user14685
11
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Search through the values of all variables in Emacs
I'd like to find which variables contain a certain value.
Is there a way to do a regex search through the values of every variable in Emacs?
- 1,878
11
votes
4
answers
2k
views
helm-ag (or similar) find in javascript files only
I'd like to restrict find/grep to (say) only javascript files (mainly because that's what i do in "another editor").
Javascript files in my legacy Ruby-on-Rails project have one of these file ...
- 243
10
votes
1
answer
3k
views
How to search an Arabic word in text without its diacritics/accents?
In Arabic as with some other languages there is what is called diacritics to enhance pronunciation. There is no convention on how many diacritics should be written for a single word. Some use the ...
- 1,829
9
votes
2
answers
335
views
Does "Occur-at-point" already exist?
I wrote an elisp function for myself at the weekend:
(defun rr-occur () ...
- 1,293
9
votes
3
answers
6k
views
Recursively find all files from a folder containing a regexp in the filename, using helm
How can I find all files from a folder and its subfolders recursively, containing a regexp in the filename, using helm?
For example: how to search for all files with the extension .el and containing ...
- 4,096
9
votes
2
answers
839
views
Selecting (i.e., as the region) the current match in incremental search
When searching for a string with C-s, I want to be able to hit some key to exit search mode but still maintain the selection of the match. That way I can immediately start typing and replace the last ...
- 607
9
votes
3
answers
2k
views
how do I do case sensitive searches using evil/spacemacs?
I'm trying to perform a search and replace in spacemacs but I need it to be case sensitive when by default it appears to be case insensitive. So I try to do :set noignorecase but then I have this ...
- 449
9
votes
1
answer
246
views
Query search and comment out line?
I am hoping to figure out how to do a query search that will comment out a line instead of query replace. That is, do an interactive query search, and if I say yes, comment out the line the match is ...
8
votes
5
answers
2k
views
How do I search in search results
When I C-s I can search. How should I do a function which I could bind for example to C-r which would let me search in the results of some predefined search query?
Like contents of window would be:
...
- 697
8
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How to search *just* the current line
I'm working with large, extra wide data files I probably should just be viewing in Excel... but I'd rather stay in Emacs. Is there an elisp function to search (and fontify) just on the current line?
- 3,707
8
votes
3
answers
1k
views
How to center the current line vertically during Isearch
During search and especially search-and-replace it would be nice to have the surrounding lines as context. But when jumping to the next hit, the cursor sometimes ends at the lowest visible line (or ...
- 2,721
8
votes
3
answers
870
views
Search and replace through a multifile project in AUCTeX?
I am about to adopt Emacs to be the only editor I use in all what I am writing including LaTeX documents. I came from WYSIWYG editor which served that purpose fairly nice, namely TexStudio or TXS for ...
- 1,829
8
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Difference between `evil-search-forward` and `evil-ex-search-forward`
It's in the title:
What's the difference between evil-search-forward and evil-ex-search-forward?
When would I want to use one instead of the other?
evil-search-forward
Search forward for user-...
- 427
8
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How to check if a string exists in the current buffer?
I want to know how do you use Emacs lisp to check the content of the current buffer, specially to know if certain string exists within the current buffer.
- 2,782
8
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Highlighting text in open (displayed) buffers/windows -- searching for text from one buffer in another
Right now, I have my Emacs frame vertically split, and am looking at two different buffers in the two windows.
I'd like to go to a word in one buffer, hit some keys, and have the ocurrences of that ...
- 890
8
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How to search for a sequence of bytes in hexl-mode?
Is it possible to search for a byte sequence in hexl-mode and possibly highlight it?
E.g. in the file below I want to search the byte sequence f9beb4d9. isearch does not work because it searches the ...
- 205
7
votes
2
answers
363
views
When to use normal incremental search in place of the regex version?
Assuming familiarity with regex, is there ever any reason to use the normal incremental search (C-s) over regex (C-M-s)?
- 327
7
votes
1
answer
260
views
Is there a more efficient alternative to search-forward when searching for a single character?
I need to split the contents of a buffer into a list of strings. The null character is used to separate the items.
It the items were separated by newline characters, then I could use the same ...
- 25.7k
7
votes
3
answers
150
views
`query-replace` leaves potential match to be replaced at bottom of window
If I have a long document that I run query-replace (or any other number of commands) in, as I'm saying y or n to replace that match or not, the current potential item to be replaced is always at the ...
- 335
7
votes
1
answer
365
views
edit search string and begin search from current location
I use C-s to start an incremental search. Sometimes I want to change the search string and either restart the search entirely from the beginning of the document or (other times) just change the search ...
- 173
7
votes
2
answers
119
views
When searching, how to always ensure that a few lines after the highlighted word are visible?
When performing search/isearch in a text, sometimes it would be desirable to see a few lines after the highlighted searched string, it other words to avoid that the highlighted word to be at the ...
- 7,859
7
votes
3
answers
2k
views
How to search for lines not containing some text?
In a large file, I want to find which lines which do not contain a given string, grep -v basically.
M-x grep helps, but it forces to protect special characters, is not interactive nor incremental, ...
- 332
6
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Is it possible to insert word at point in swiper?
I'm using swiper for searching, one thing i very much miss compared to isearch is to insert the word at point into swiper. I have icicles installed, but M-., which i usally use to insert word at point ...
- 361
6
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Swiper get last search term
How to get swiper to search for the last searched term , much like (default) isearch-forward does when pressing C-s twice?
- 983
6
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Ringing Bell in Macro with Search
It throws the error After 0 kbd macro iterations: isearch-search: Keyboard macro terminated by a command ringing the bell and I have no idea why, nor can I find anything about it by searching. Any ...
- 175
6
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How to search by tags in org-mode
Here is a simple file:
#+TAGS: math(m) music(u)
* Gödel :math:
* Bach :music:
* Gauss :math:
* Beethoven :music:
* Mozart :music:
Then I tried M-x org-tags-view
Match: +math
I expected that Gödel ...
- 1,059
6
votes
1
answer
537
views
Preset search isearch-string from command line
I am trying to set isearch-string from the command line. The purpose is to have a Perl script start Emacs with a given search string, and go directly to the first line of the string and enter search ...
- 3,648
6
votes
2
answers
455
views
How to search/isearch just comments?
Is it possible to perform a search/isearch just in comment regions of the text?
- 7,859
5
votes
3
answers
9k
views
Search for text and navigate between the occurrences
I want to be able to search for some text and navigate quickly between the occurrences. What is a convenient way to search for some text, view all the occurrences, and jump quickly to the next/...
- 7,194
5
votes
1
answer
926
views
Gracefully Exiting a While Loop
So, I have this function, which works just fine for me and does what I want it to:
(defun mwp-set-grade ()
(interactive)
(save-excursion
(while
(re-search-forward "- Grade :: \\\(.*\\...
- 115
5
votes
2
answers
276
views
Incremental Search after opening file
Being fairly new to GNU Emacs and intend to use it as a replacement to vi/vim where possible, I came across an obstacle, I seem not be able to overcome.
In vim (similar to less) you can provide a ...
- 351
5
votes
2
answers
2k
views
in Emacs regex, how to search for uppercase letters only?
I'm trying to build a function but having trouble with the regex. Specifically, I want to match capital letters only.
This function is supposed to capitalize words that are in lowercase (the → The) ...
- 4,231
5
votes
1
answer
475
views
Search and replace with case preservation and plurals
Is there a way (or package) to search and replace code like:
class Account
def list_accounts
end
end
to
class Company
def list_companies
end
end
Basically I want to replace account(s) with ...
- 165
5
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Display search results in their own buffer
I've use helm and ivy with swiper the search is great but I like to be able to keep search results in a buffer, navigate and edit my code and switch back to my search results buffer.
- 151
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How to jump up or down to first non-whitespace character in same column
I use evil-mode with Emacs and would like to accomplish this via evil-mode, but would be fine with doing it in an Emacs-centric way too. The subject line explains it well, but here is a post in which ...
- 571
5
votes
3
answers
602
views
How to use helm to complete sources which are lines in a buffer?
I have a buffer (not a file) containing data. I would like a function that lets the user select 1 or more lines of this buffer, e.g., by typing a regexp, and that returns the result as a list of ...
- 887
5
votes
2
answers
261
views
Hyperlinked code navigation
I'd like to browse source code in emacs by searching for 'word' or 'tag' hits in a way somewhat similar to etags but:
clicking on words to search for matches across a code base (say a directory or ...
- 3,332
4
votes
2
answers
3k
views
how to search and replace an entire word?
I know the command isearch-forward-word, but there doesn't seem to be an isearch-replace-word. I'd like to search and replace every instance of a certain word in a buffer. For instance, search for ...
- 4,231
4
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Search for and correct capitalized words that are not at the beginning of a sentence
I have a latex document in which there are many incorrectly Capitalized words. Could anybody suggest a clever regex to track them?
Even better if there is a function which cycles through such words ...
- 548